Southwest Airlines just made a long overdue change, and it feels like the end of an era

It’s a story about Southwest Airlines catching up to its competition.

Quick Context: Just a few years ago, one of the big challenges facing Southwest and other airlines was the proliferation of passengers who insisted on bringing emotional support animals on board.

Airlines had little choice in this area. Federal rules allowed people to be accompanied by service animals on planes, but did not actually define “service animal.”

The result? Passengers brought “comfort turkeys, gliding possums known as sugar gliders, snakes, spiders and more” on board as emotional support animals, according to an industry report.

This in turn has led to a “surge” of incidents of “barking, biting, biting, growling and fighting” in passenger cabins, according to the same report.

Last week, however, Southwest Airlines took the big step by basically banning most so-called emotional support animals from their cabins.

“As of March 1, 2021,” Southwest said in a statement, “the airline will only accept assistance dogs trained to travel and will no longer carry emotional support animals,” adding:

With this revision, Southwest Airlines will only allow assistance dogs that are individually trained to perform work or tasks for the benefit of a disabled person qualified to travel with the customer.

Types of disability include physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual or other disability and only dogs will be accepted (including those for psychiatric services) – no other species will be accepted as a trained service animal.

Now, of course, Southwest is not alone with this new policy. As I wrote earlier, American, Delta, and United Airlines, along with smaller airlines, changed their rules earlier this month.

At the time, Southwest told me they had no changes to announce. At least one report suggested some travelers were hopeful that Southwest, “known for its independent spirit, would not join” in the ban. Alas, now they have caught up with the others.

This all follows the US government’s review of its own rules in December, establishing a definition of service animals, allowing airlines to require proof that they are actually trained and giving airlines the ability to classify emotional support animals as pets.

Of course, some people have a legitimate need for real service animals. They are still allowed.

But this rule change should make life easier for flight attendants, who have had to deal with animals – including in situations where passengers and flight attendants have been bitten or injured by them. (Examples: Here, here and Here.)

Now I know this all seems to be five crises ago, so to speak. It’s a hell of a time to be in the airline industry right now.

Over the past week, we’ve had so many other developments: the CDC requiring all airline passengers (and people taking other forms of public transportation) to wear masks, for example, which should hopefully alleviate some of the burdens on flight attendants’ shoulders. .

Add to that the huge losses that most airlines have recently experienced (Southwest experienced its first annual loss in nearly 50 years), the debate over whether to block out the middle seats and, as the Southwest president Tom Nealon, the prospect of a “ goat rodeo “if the government required airlines to test passengers for Covid before domestic flights.

All of this makes it a little better to reach the end (apparently) of the story of emotional support animals.

Another point: I am not aware that this problem has ever had a real impact on the financial results of airlines. The passengers who were going to take the plane could have complained, but it wasn’t like they could go to another airline which had stricter rules; they all had to follow federal law.

But here the airlines were able to work together, ultimately for the benefit of employees who did not want to have to police this issue among all their other responsibilities. It took years to solve it, and if you are a business leader in any industry, I think the lesson is worth taking to heart.