Florida ships a great many people home. Between a large retiree population, a seasonal winter influx from the Northeast and Midwest, and a record 143.3 million visitors in 2025, a meaningful share of deaths in this state involve someone whose family, cemetery and hometown funeral home are somewhere else.
Shipping human remains by air is well-established, tightly documented work. Here is how the process actually runs, in the order it happens.
Who is allowed to ship
This is the first thing that surprises people. You cannot walk remains up to an airline counter.
Airlines accept human remains as cargo only from shippers enrolled in the TSA’s Known Shipper Program, and enrollment is per-airline — being known to one carrier does not make you known to another. As the National Funeral Directors Association summarizes it, airlines will not accept packages weighing more than one pound from unregistered shippers, and a shipper must apply to each airline separately.
Practically, this means remains are tendered by a licensed funeral establishment or a mortuary transport company with known shipper status on the carrier being used. Families cannot do this themselves, and this is the single most common reason a well-meant plan falls apart.
Step 1: Release and permits
Nothing moves until custody is clear.
If the death falls under medical examiner jurisdiction — deaths by accident, by violence, suddenly in apparent good health, unattended by a practicing physician, in suspicious circumstances, or where cremation is planned (§ 406.11, Fla. Stat.) — the district medical examiner must release the remains first. That timeline belongs to their office.
Then the permit. Under § 382.006, Fla. Stat., the funeral director who first assumes custody must obtain a burial-transit permit before final disposition and within five days after death. Critically for shipping: when remains are transported to a point outside Florida, the permit accompanies them to their destination. Separately, § 497.386 requires a properly completed burial-transit permit for transport by any authorized carrier.
Airlines require documentation before they will accept the shipment — typically a burial-transit permit or a physician’s or health officer’s certificate, depending on carrier.
Step 2: Preparation — embalming or refrigeration
Florida law provides that a dead human body may not be held in any place or in transit more than 24 hours after death pending final disposition unless refrigerated at 40°F or below, embalmed, or otherwise preserved by a method approved by the licensing authority (§ 497.386, Fla. Stat.).
For air shipment, embalming is the practical norm. Reasons stack up: transit and layover time, the receiving funeral home’s requirements, the destination state’s rules, whether an open-casket viewing is planned, and some carriers’ own conditions. Some destination states and some receiving firms require it outright. Where a family objects on religious grounds, discuss alternatives — expedited routing, refrigeration, ground transport — with both funeral homes early rather than at the airport.
Step 3: The container
Two options, and the distinction matters for cost.
Air tray. A casket placed inside an outer shipping container made of wood, particle board, corrugated fiberboard, plastic or other water-repellent material. Carriers generally require new air trays — American Airlines, for example, states plainly that used air trays and combination units are not permitted. Adult air trays run roughly 87 × 32 × 23 inches, and the combined casket-plus-tray weight drives the freight charge. Confirm requirements with the specific carrier you are booking.
Combination unit (combo unit). A single-purpose shipping container that serves as both transport container and, at the destination, a rentable-casket insert or a container for cremation. Lighter and less expensive than a casket in an air tray, and the standard choice when the receiving funeral home will place the remains into a different casket, or when cremation will occur at the destination.
Ask the receiving funeral home which they want before you build the shipment. Shipping a casket in an air tray to a firm that intends to transfer the remains into their own casket wastes several hundred dollars and a great deal of weight.
Step 4: Booking and tender
Human remains ship as a specialty cargo product, handled under a dedicated service name at most carriers. Booking considerations:
- Nonstop wherever possible. Every connection is a chance for a missed transfer, and a missed transfer on a Friday afternoon can mean a weekend on a ramp.
- Aircraft and hold size. Not every aircraft can accept an adult air tray. Regional jets frequently cannot, which matters when the destination is a smaller airport.
- Cargo facility hours at the destination. Arrival at 11 p.m. into a facility that closes at 9 p.m. means the remains sit until morning.
- Tender times. Carriers require the shipment be delivered to the cargo facility well before departure. American Airlines, for example, requires two hours for domestic uncremated remains — two and a half hours out of Miami — and four hours for international. Build these into the plan, not around it.
- Documentation pouch. Paperwork travels affixed to the outside of the container so the carrier and receiving party can access it without opening anything.
Step 5: Ground transport at both ends
Air is the middle of the journey, not the whole of it. Someone must move the remains from the funeral home to the origin cargo facility, tender them, obtain the air waybill, and confirm loading. At the destination, the receiving funeral home collects from cargo.
This is the leg funeral homes most often outsource, and for good reason: a Tampa-to-Miami airport run to catch a specific nonstop can consume a full day of staff time.
International shipments: a different animal
International repatriation adds requirements that vary by destination country, commonly including a consular mortuary certificate from the destination country’s consulate, a certified death certificate with apostille or consular legalization, an embalming certificate, a certificate of non-contagious disease, and a hermetically sealed zinc or metal-lined container. Some countries require documents in their own language.
Timelines run considerably longer than domestic — often one to three weeks — and consulate hours drive the schedule. Start with the destination country’s nearest consulate and work backward.
Cremated remains follow entirely different rules
Cremated remains are not shipped as air cargo in most cases. Three options:
By mail. The United States Postal Service is the only mail carrier that accepts cremated remains; UPS and FedEx prohibit them. Since March 2025, USPS requires that cremated remains be shipped in the official Priority Mail Express Cremated Remains Box, available free from the Postal Store — customer-supplied packaging is no longer permitted — and sent via Priority Mail Express or Priority Mail Express International.
As airline carry-on. Most airlines permit a passenger to carry cremated remains in the cabin, but TSA must be able to screen the container by X-ray. A container that returns an opaque image will not be permitted through security, in carry-on or checked baggage. Many metal, stone and thick ceramic urns fall into that category. A temporary plastic or wooden container, with the permanent urn packed separately, is the practical answer. Check current TSA guidance before travel, as screening rules change.
As air cargo. Where a carrier accepts them, specific packaging requirements apply. American Airlines, for instance, requires cremated remains to be contained in a five-millimeter polyurethane bag within cardboard outer packaging, prefers a metal container or urn as the inner packaging, sets minimum outer dimensions of 12 × 12 × 12 inches, and does not accept cremation containers for the transport of uncremated human remains.
Carry a copy of the cremation certificate and the death certificate in every case, and check the destination country’s import rules before international travel.
Realistic timelines
- Medical examiner release: their timeline, days to weeks
- Death certificate and burial-transit permit: commonly one to several business days
- Embalming and container preparation: typically same or next day once released
- Booking and flight: often next available nonstop, subject to tender time
- Total, domestic, uncomplicated: frequently three to seven days from death
Weekends, holidays and hurricane season disruptions extend all of it. When a family asks for a date, give a range and explain what controls it.
What this costs
Cost components, rather than a number nobody can honestly quote in advance: funeral home professional services, embalming, the air tray or combination unit, airline freight priced largely by weight and route, ground transport to and from cargo facilities, the receiving funeral home’s fee, permit and certificate fees, and — internationally — consular and legalization fees. Weight is the variable most within your control, which is why the container decision matters.
How Bay to Bay handles airport shipping
Bay to Bay Mortuary Transport is based in Tampa and serves the Tampa Bay area. We provide airport mortuary shipping and coordination alongside first calls, hospital and hospice transfers, and long-distance ground transport, 24 hours a day, across Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee, Sarasota and Polk counties.
For funeral homes, we handle the leg that eats your day: the run to the cargo facility, the tender, the paperwork, the confirmation. See how partnership works, or reach dispatch at 727-542-4321.
Families: your funeral home coordinates this on your behalf. If you are just beginning, start with our guide for out-of-state families.
Frequently asked questions
Can a family ship human remains themselves? No. Airlines accept human remains only from shippers enrolled in the TSA Known Shipper Program, and enrollment is per-airline. Remains are tendered by a licensed funeral establishment or a mortuary transport company with known shipper status.
Is embalming required to fly a body from Florida? Florida law requires refrigeration at 40°F or below, embalming, or another approved preservation method beyond 24 hours (§ 497.386, Fla. Stat.). For air shipment, embalming is standard practice, and the destination state, receiving funeral home or carrier may require it.
What is the difference between an air tray and a combination unit? An air tray is an outer container that encloses a casket for shipment. A combination unit is a single container that both ships the remains and serves as an insert or cremation container at the destination — lighter and less expensive when a casket is not being shipped.
How do I ship cremated remains? By mail, only through USPS, in the official Priority Mail Express Cremated Remains Box, which has been mandatory since March 1, 2025 — customer-supplied packaging is no longer accepted. UPS and FedEx prohibit cremated remains entirely. Cremated remains may also travel as airline carry-on in an X-ray-screenable container, or as air cargo where the carrier accepts them under its own packaging rules.
How long does it take to ship a body from Florida to another state? Commonly three to seven days when no medical examiner hold applies. Medical examiner investigations, weekends and holidays extend the timeline.