Southwest Airlines became the last major US carrier to ban emotional support animals on its flights on Monday.
As of March 1, Southwest will only accept service dogs trained for travel and will no longer recognize emotional support animals, the company said. has announced.
The Southwest defined service dogs as those “individually trained to work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified person with a disability to travel with the Client.” Only dogs are accepted as trained service animals, the company said.
Customers can bring other dogs or cats as pets for a fee, but they must be stock under the chairs.
The changes take place after the Department of Transportation issued a the final rule limiting the definition of a service dog to one “individually trained to work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified person with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual or other disability”.
The rule also states that “carriers are not required to recognize emotionally supportive animals as service animals and may treat them as pets”, although “psychiatric service animals” will be treated as service animals.
Steve Goldberg, Southwest’s senior vice president of operations and hospitality, said in a statement that the decision “allows us to make these important changes to address the many concerns raised by the public and the airline’s employees about transporting untrained animals in the aircraft cabin.” ”
“Southwest Airlines continues to support the ability of qualified people with disabilities to bring trained service dogs for travel and remains committed to providing a positive and accessible travel experience for all our customers with disabilities.”
Southwest is the last of the major airlines to repress emotional support animals on their flights, notes The Associated Press. American Airlines earlier this month announced a ban about the emotional support animals that came into force for the flights booked on 11 January.