[PDF] DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Office of the Secretary 14

BEFORE THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION WASHINGTON, D.C. ____________________________________ ) Notice of Proposed ) Docket OST-2018-0068 Rulemaking ) ) Traveling by Air With ) Service Animals ) ___________________________________ ) COMMENTS OF SPIRIT AIRLINES, INC. ______________________________________________________________ Communications with respect to this document should be sent to: April 6, 2020 Joanne W. Young David M. Kirstein Kirstein & Young, PLLC 1750 K Street, N.W. Suite 700 Washington, D.C. 20006 (202) 331-3348 (telephone) jyoung@yklaw.com dkirstein@yklaw.com Attorneys for SPIRIT AIRLINES, INC.

BEFORE THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION WASHINGTON, D.C. ____________________________________ ) Notice of Proposed ) Docket OST-2018-0068 Rulemaking ) ) Traveling by Air With ) Service Animals ) ___________________________________ ) COMMENTS OF SPIRIT AIRLINES, INC. Spirit Airlines, Inc. (" Spirit") submits these comm ents in response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("NPRM"), titled Traveling by Air With Service Animals, Docket OST-2018-0068, published at 85 Fed. Reg. 6448, February 5, 2020. Spirit generally favors the Departme nt of Transportation proposal to update the regulations on traveling with service ani mals, subject to the c oncerns outline d below. The proposal advances the public intere st by clarifying sources of confusion for airlines and passengers with disabilities, and continues to accommodate passengers with disabilities seeking to travel with service animals while taking into consideration the health and safety concerns of fellow passengers. S pirit supports the proposed defi nition of service animal; be lieves the Department should eliminate the category of emotional support animals from 14 C.F.R. part 382; agrees with the decision t o allow airl ines to require attestation forms and suggests the Department itself should require such forms; believes the Department should allow airlines to cap the number of service animals traveling with a passenger at two; agrees the Department should require service animals to be leashed, harnessed, or otherwise restrained at airports and on

Docket OST-2018-0068 Comment of Spirit Airlines Page 2 aircraft; and agrees with the Department proposal to allow airlines to set their own limitations on size of service animals. Spirit believes the proposed changes advance the Department's mandate to help airlines provide accommodations to travelers with disabilities that are "reasonable in light of the realities and limitations of air service and the onboard environment of commercial airplanes." 85 Fed. Reg. 6449. I. DEFINITION OF SERVICE ANIMAL Spirit agrees with the proposed definition of service animal as a "dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a qualified individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability." 1 Airlines should still be allowed to recognize other breeds of service animals. The overall concern for an airline is whether an animal being brought into close quarters on an aircraft is properly trained. Service animals should not only be able to perform a task for an individual with a disability, but should have undergone obedience training as well. This requirement protects all passengers, crewmembers, and other animals on an aircraft. Regarding the Department's specific request for comment on whether to allow transport of closed-colony capuchin monkeys in a carrier when traveling with a qualified trainer, Spirit believes this should be left to the discretion of individual airlines. Some airlines will still accept such animals provided the trainer is qualified and the animal is adequately contained. Spirit agrees with the proposal to treat psychiatric support animals as service animals under this definition as long as the same obedience training requirements are met as apply to other service animals. The Department should maintain the current documentation requirement 1 85 Fed. Reg. 6452.

Docket OST-2018-0068 Comment of Spirit Airlines Page 3 for psychia tric support animals for the first year of ena ctment if they are included i n the definition of service animal. The Department should monitor airline experiences during that time period to determ ine whether passengers will in fact more frequently claim to have a psychiatric disorder to have their pets fly for free. II. EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMALS Despite how the Department proposal has been port rayed in the media ,2 it does not categorically ban any sort of emotional support animal or companion animal from traveling with a passenger. The Department reasonably proposes to allow airlines to charge a fee for untrained emotional support animals and companion animals, like they do for pets. Spirit supports the proposal to discontinue treating emotional support animals the same a s traditional servic e animals, and to leave it to the discretion of the airlines whether to recognize such animals, meaning some airline s could still a llow emotional support animals to fly for free. Current regulations, as the Department acknowledges and as the ANPRM helped bring to light, unfortunately allow for rampant fraudulent behavior and increasingly unsafe conditions due to travelers claiming their untrained pets are emotional support animals simply to avoid paying a fee.3 Whether an airline wa nts to c onsider an emotional support a nimal to be an accommodation for an individual with a disability, but not a "service animal," should be in the airline's discretion. As noted in the NPRM, passengers "with a legitimate need for an emotional 2 See https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/01/31/if-emotional-support-animals-are-banned-planes-some-people-say-theyll-stop-flying/ 3 See Traveling by Air With Service Animals, 83 Fed. Reg. 23832 (May 23, 2018).

Docket OST-2018-0068 Comment of Spirit Airlines Page 4 support animal could still be accommodated on aircraft under the DOJ definition of a service animal, if these passengers trained their animals to become psychiatric service animals..."4 Even if stricte r documentation were required should the Department continue to recognize emotional support animals, Spirit believes the fraudulent behavior will continue and unsafe conditions will abound on aircraft. Unless an animal is trained to perform a task or otherwise has documentation classifying it as a service animal under the Department's standards, airlines should not be required to treat an emotional support animal the same as a highly trained service animal. Airlines should have the freedom to set their own policies in this regard. In the event the Department continues to recognize emotional support animals, it should require them to fly in containers for the safety of crewmembers, passengers, and trained service animals that may be on the same flight. In a situation in which an emotional support animal is too large to fit in a container in the cabin, the Department should not force airlines to allow the animals to lay at the handler's feet such that it would encroach on the space of another passenger. Handlers may purchase an adjoining seat for the animal or make other arrangements with the airline, but airlines should not be forced to accommodate large animals that have not met the training requirements of traditional service animals. III. ATTESTATION FORMS Spirit supports the proposal to allow airlines to require the three forms described, and suggests the Department require these forms for such animals to lessen the opportunities for confusion and to promote uniformity across domestic air travel. This will decrease the number of complaints and instances of attempted fraudulent behavior because, as time passes, travelers with disabilities will know what to expect no matter what airline they choose to fly. 4 85 Fed. Reg. 6457, citing Comment of Delta Air Lines, Inc., https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=DOT-OST-2018-0068-4141.

Docket OST-2018-0068 Comment of Spirit Airlines Page 5 Whether the Department simply allows airlines to require these forms or requires the forms itself, Spirit believes uniformity promotes the public interest. This would benefit both airlines, by ensuring compliance with the Department's policies; and the traveling public, by managing travel expectations no m atter what airline they fly. T hus, S pirit supports the Department providing forms to airlines. Spirit supports the Department's format of the behavior attestation form, veterinarian form, and relief attestation form. The Department should allow carriers to require submission of these forms at le ast 48 hours in a dvance of scheduled departure, whic h would mi nimize or eliminate the inconvenience to all passengers in line by having forms summited during a busy check-in period at an airport. Airlines should still be able to deny boarding to a service animal if an employee observes it misbehaving or showing aggression in an airport, regardless of whether the documentation requirement has been met. IV. BREED RESTRICTIONS AND LIMITS ON NUMBER OF SERVICE ANIMALS Spirit believes the Department's prohibition on airlines establishing their own policies regarding breed restrictions should be lifted. Airlines should have discretion whether to allow certain breeds of dogs on board as service animals. Some animals are more prone to aggression and may not exhibit such behavior until they are on board an aircraft. Thus, even with the ability to refuse transport ation to dogs that exhibit aggress ive behavior, it may, in some instances, be too late by the time an animal that eventually exhibits aggressive behavior has boarded an aircraft. Even if requirements for behavioral attestation forms are established, there will always be passengers that do not comply with Department and airline policies. There will still be animals

Docket OST-2018-0068 Comment of Spirit Airlines Page 6 with "credentials" that are not behaviorally trained to fly. The ultimate responsibility to keep passengers safe lies with the airline, and it should be in the airline's discretion whether to allow certain breeds that are capable of more harm in the event an animal shows aggressive behavior. As the Department notes, the unique environment of a crowded airplane cabin in flight requires more protections for other passengers than, say, a library under the Americans with Disabilities Act. While Spirit does not advocate for restricting certain breeds for no reason, it believes the decision should be left to the airlines. Carriers should not be required to accept more than two service animals per passenger without extenuating ci rcumstances, which the passenge r can contact the airline to discuss. Should the Department continue to recognize emotional support animals, passengers should be limited to one. Though Spirit recognizes in rare instances a passenger ma y require the assistance of more than two service animals, safety concerns regarding traveling with several animals in one seat include other passengers with allergies, blocked footpaths in the event of an emergency evacuation, and the general stress of having several animals added to the confined space and limited foot space of a row. Spirit would be willing to accept more than two animals per passenger on a case by case basis but should not be required to in all instances. V. RESTRAINT REQUIREMENT The nature of air travel in general, as discussed above, requires airlines to consider the safety of all passengers at once. For this reason Spirit believes the benefits of establishing a restraint requirement outweigh the costs to passengers traveling with animals. Spirit agrees that in the unique instances where using a harness, leash, or other restraint would prevent the animal from performing its duties as a service animal, an exception to the restraint requirement would

Docket OST-2018-0068 Comment of Spirit Airlines Page 7 be proper. O verall, S piri t believes the requirement t hat a servic e animal be restrained or contained during travel is reasonable and takes into consideration the needs of all passengers. VI. LARGE ANIMALS Spirit agrees that the Department should continue to allow airlines to set their own size limitations on service animals, including whet her to require the animal to fit within the passenger's foot space or on the passenger's lap. To the extent possible, airlines have the option of reshuffling passengers so a passenger traveling with a large animal could be placed next to an empty seat, however, this is not a reliable method for ensuring all passengers have the safest flight experience possible. Even offering the passenger transportation on a later flight with more room is not reliable as flights can fill up last minute. Allowing airlines to effectively manage expectations of passengers traveling with service animals by setting limitations where necessary is the best way to ensure a passenger with a disability can know exactly what to expect when traveling. All passengers should enjoy a comfortabl e flight a nd should not be burde ned with objecting if they feel uncomfortable sharing their foot space with a large service animal. Able-bodied passengers should not shoulder the responsibility of objecting to an animal's presence and may experience undue stress during flight as a result, either by sharing an already confined space with a large animal, or by having disrupted a disabled passenger's travel plans. Spirit believes allowing airlines to set their own size limitations or policies regarding large animals will provide more benefits to passengers in the way of managed expectations and safety of other passengers than it would impose costs.

Docket OST-2018-0068 Comment of Spirit Airlines Page 8 VII. CONCLUSION Spirit supports the Department's proposed changes to 14 C.F.R. part 382, subject to the conditions stated above, and appreciates the Department's efforts to make air travel as safe and comfortable as possible for passengers, crewmembers and animals. Respectfully submitted, Joanne W. Young David M. Kirstein Kirstein & Young, PLLC 1750 K Street, N.W., Suite 700 Washington, D.C. 20006 (202) 331-3348 (telephone) jyoung@yklaw.com dkirstein@yklaw.com Attorneys for SPIRIT AIRLINES, INC.