If it was not already apparent, as we speak’s Southwest Airways isn’t your dad and mom’ Southwest.
Simply days after CEO Bob Jordan spoke of the potential for long-haul international destinations — assume Europe, not Kansas — the airline made its first displaying on the annual assembly of the worldwide aviation commerce group Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation in New Delhi. The assembly is a who’s who of senior aviation management the place offers get executed.
Steven Swan, the managing director of worldwide at Southwest, acknowledged this throughout a sit-down in New Delhi.
“It is a massive change for us,” he stated.
Southwest first flew exterior the U.S. in 2014 — AirTran Airways operated worldwide flights as a Southwest subsidiary previous to that — schedule knowledge from aviation analytics agency Cirium reveals. However ever since then, the airline has been higher recognized for its home breadth than overseas attain.
“We perceive our clients wish to go locations exterior of the nation as properly, and we would like to have the ability to present them with that chance,” stated Swan.
Simply displaying up in New Delhi is a logo, a minimum of to the airline trade, of Southwest’s internationalization.
And the potential of long-haul flights comes throughout a interval of dramatic change for the airline. Luggage stopped flying free final week. Further-legroom seats go on sale in October. And open seating ends early subsequent yr. After which there’s the potential of Southwest lounges, and even first-class, sooner or later.
New locations overseas are coming
Southwest has not added a brand new worldwide vacation spot since Cozumel Worldwide Airport (CZM) in 2020, Cirium schedules present. That is to not say it has not grown; the airline added 17 new U.S. locations starting from Miami Worldwide Airport (MIA) to Yampa Valley Regional Airport (HDN) close to Steamboat Springs within the Colorado mountains through the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Home development has slowed dramatically — the airline exited four cities, including Cozumel, in 2024 — and Southwest is “transitioning again,” as Swan put it, to increasing its worldwide map.
Swan was diplomatic on the place the service may go, paraphrasing former CEO Gary Kelly’s oft-repeated line about Southwest having 50 or so worldwide locations it may serve.
He did say that Southwest’s subsequent few worldwide additions would observe the sample of the cities it already serves. That’s: leisure-heavy locations within the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America that cater to American vacationers.
After these cities come on-line, nevertheless, the sky is the restrict — or a minimum of the vary of considered one of Southwest’s Boeing 737 MAX planes.
“We consider its first forays into long-haul worldwide service may contain connecting into Reykjavík, which is in vary for its [737] MAX 8s,” wrote Tom Fitzgerald, an airline analyst at TD Cowen, in a report Might 31. He cited Southwest’s present partnership with Icelandair and famous that the European service may “drive co-brand bank card spending by Speedy Rewards members.”
Requested to touch upon Fitzgerald’s report, Swan stated, “Something that’s throughout the MAX vary is interesting to us so as to add to the community.”
He added that Icelandair, which Southwest began connecting with at Baltimore/Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) in January, does a “unbelievable job.”
Speedy Rewards partnerships are within the works
One massive piece lacking from Southwest’s Icelandair partnership is loyalty. At the moment, it solely connects vacationers and checked baggage with the European service’s flights at six U.S. airports.
Including Rapid Rewards factors accrual and redemption, and possibly even loyalty advantages, has the potential to make any worldwide tie-up a lot richer for each Southwest and its companion.
Southwest is working towards offering clients “the aptitude to make use of their Speedy Reward factors to journey wherever they wish to go — if that is in Asia, or that is in Europe, or that is in Africa,” stated Swan.
The IT techniques wanted to energy loyalty tie-ups, codeshares or extra are, as with so many issues know-how at Southwest, within the works, he defined.
Within the meantime, vacationers can stay up for China Airways becoming a member of Icelandair as a Southwest companion in 2026. The tie-up with the Taiwanese carrier will look a lot the identical: Vacationers can ebook flights on each airways throughout a single itinerary and the airways will switch checked baggage. Loyalty advantages and anything are to return.
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