Southwest Airlines on Monday became the last major airline to ban emotional support animals on its flights.
As of March 1, Southwest will only accept service dogs trained to travel and will no longer recognize emotional support animals, the company said. announced.
Southwest defined service dogs as those “individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified person with a disability to travel with the client.” The company said only dogs are accepted as trained service animals.
Guests can bring other dogs or cats as pets for an extra charge, but they must be stored under the seats.
The changes come after the Department of Transportation issued a final rule limiting the definition of service dog to one “individually trained to do 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 pets. on duty.
Steve Goldberg, senior vice president of operations and hospitality for Southwest, said in a statement that the decision “allows us to make these important changes to address numerous concerns raised by public employees and airlines regarding the transportation of animals not trained in aircraft cabins “. ”
“Southwest Airlines continues to support the ability of qualified people with disabilities to bring trained service dogs to travel and remains committed to providing a positive and accessible travel experience for all of our disabled customers.”
Southwest is the latest major airline to crack down on emotionally supportive animals on its flights, notes The Associated Press. American Airlines earlier this month announced a ban about emotional support animals that went into effect on booked flights on January 11th.