by Donald Wood
Last updated: 1:41 PM ET, Fri March 8, 2019
American Airlines announced more changes Friday to its service and emotional support animal policies and procedures.
The new changes will go into effect for travel on or after April 1.
After making widespread changes to the airline's policies in May 2018, American officials implemented new rules and regulations to protect customers with legitimate needs and employees working to keep passengers safe.
All service and emotional support animals must be adequately trained and certified, as untrained cats, dogs or miniature horses can lead to safety issues for team members, customers or even other animals.
The carrier worked with an estimated 10,400 team members and 18,000 customers to conduct a survey regarding service and emotional support animal policies, and the results were submitted to the United States Department of Transportation.
Starting in April, a traditional service animal may be a dog, a cat or, in some limited circumstances, a miniature horse, while emotional support animals are limited to either a dog or cat only, with passengers only permitted to have one animal per flight.
In addition, travelers will have to present American a Veterinary Health Form and immunization details for emotional support animals, which can be found on the airline's official website.
Animals under four months of age will no longer be permitted to travel as service or support animals due to possible issues with vaccinations.
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