Southwest 'trying to find our niche' in partnerships with other airlines: Alliances director

Southwest Airlines director - alliances Julie Morris, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit Americas, stated (27-May-2026) after more than five decades, "the decision was made a few years ago to start expanding how we work with other airlines", including signing interline agreements for the first time. Ms Morris said: "Southwest has been around for quite a while. We'd like to think perfected the LCC model as a standalone airline that really controlled its own destiny in so many ways", adding: "We like to say we never intentionally transferred bags to other carriers, but we are doing that now". She said moving into activities such as interlining "brings a lot of complexity into an airline that really was able to have very standard processes and things that were automated for everybody", and reported: "We've learned a lot and I think it's going really well, but we're still very early in our journey". Ms Morris continued: "A lot of the global airline industry is partnered up in many different ways. We're entering this a little bit later in the game, so we are very open to all different types of partnerships, different carriers... we're just trying to find our niche as we move into this space". She concluded: "Our network is a bit unique in the US. We are hub-ish but not quite as hubbed as some of the other legacy carriers, and so we serve some different points and point to point markets and destinations that can be additive to other partnerships that already exist within the US". [more - CAPA TV]