Rule will allow airlines to ban some animals
Julia Thompson
USA TODAY
The Department of Transportation announced Wednesday that it will revise rules on flying with emotional support animals and will no longer consider them to be service animals, which are required by law to be allowed to fly with passengers on commercial airlines. The revised Air Carrier Access Act rules define a service animal as “a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability.”
The DOT said it no longer considers an emotional support animal to be a service animal, paving the way for airlines to ban them. Policies will be set by individual airlines but must meet DOT rules, which will go into effect 30 days after the final ruling is published in the Federal Register.
The new DOT rule will allow airlines to require flyers with a service animal to fill out a form up to 48 hours in advance. They’ll also be allowed to require a service animal to fit within its
handler’s foot space on the plane, which could be problematic for larger service animals.
Contributing: Associated Press
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