Southwest Airlines Is Now Available on Travelport GDS
by Daine Taylor
Southwest is now available to book through Travelport. Photo: Shutterstock.com.
Southwest Airlines on Monday announced it will accept bookings through Travelport’s Global Distribution System (GDS), as well as settling tickets booked via the new GDS processes through Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC).
While previously, corporate travel managers who preferred to manage their organization’s travel on Southwest through a GDS channel could only book or cancel a reservation, the new arrangement allows them more access to Southwest’s fares, industry-standard booking and ticketing, and provides a new level of functionality and service. .
“Our new GDS capabilities allow business travel managers the ability to book, modify, and cancel Southwest travel without having to pick up the phone, and they can better track and manage their organization’s travel,” said Andrew Watterson, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for Southwest.
Over the past year, Southwest has made major investments in self-service tools, direct-connect channels, and industry-standard GDS capabilities, since the Southwest Business program was announced last year.
Southwest also said it plans to add similar capability to Amadeus’ GDS by the end of 2020.
