Southwest Announces Changes to Service, Emotional Support Animal Policies

Southwest Airlines announced changes to its service and emotional support animal policies Tuesday with the intent of providing guidance to passengers traveling with their specially trained pets.

Starting September 17, emotional support animals (ESAs) will be limited to only dogs and cats, only one animal per customer and they must be kept in a carrier or on a leash at all times. Passengers flying with ESAs must also present a letter from a medical doctor or licensed mental health professional on the day of departure.

Southwest’s policy changes were influenced by the Department of Transportation (DOT), feedback from customers and employees and input from several major advocacy groups.

“We welcome emotional support and trained service animals that provide needed assistance to our customers,” Southwest senior vice president Steve Goldberg said in a statement. “However, we want to make sure our guidelines are clear and easy to understand while providing customers and employees a comfortable and safe experience.”

“The ultimate goal with these changes is to ensure customers traveling with service animals know what to expect when choosing Southwest,” Goldberg continued. “Southwest will continue working with advocacy groups, employees, customers and the DOT to ensure we offer supportive service animal guidelines.”

As for trained service animals, Southwest will only accept the most common service animals, such as dogs, cats and miniature horses. Unusual or exotic animals will not be accepted for the health and safety of the airline’s customers and employees.

Psychiatric support animals (PSAs) will also be formally introduced as trained service animals, as long as owners provide a verbal assurance they are properly trained. All emotional support and service animals must be trained to behave in a public setting and must be under the control of the handler at all times.