Southwest Airlines today said it has signed a distribution agreement with global distribution system Galileo. The 10-year agreement is effective immediately, but Southwest content will not go live in the Galileo channel until later this year, as there's "still technical work that needs to be done to connect the two," said Southwest director of corporate sales Rob Brown.
"Because of the specifics of the agreement, there's a lot I can't share, but we are going to participate at their entry level—that basic booking level of participation. That's the initial arrangement. Over time, I think that it's going to evolve to a more interactive level," Brown said.
While Brown said there are no immediately pending agreements with other distributors, he noted, "In this changing and crazy world, we're always having conversations with technology companies and other distribution channels. As opportunities are presented to Southwest, we'll evaluate them accordingly."
Southwest always has garnered the bulk of its business through GDS-independent channels. However, amid new distribution economics that entered the industry last year, the channel has become more affordable for many domestic airlines. JetBlue last year began re-listing in all of the major GDSs, noting a windfall of incremental revenue
(BTN, Nov. 6, 2006).
Southwest Airlines vice president of marketing, sales and distribution Kevin Krone told
BTN last year, "We'd be foolish to make some sort of ironclad statement that we'd never do this. I don't want to say that, but I do think that, being a low-cost carrier, the deals have to work for us and maintain our low-cost distribution model. We just haven't seen those deals yet. If we were to see one, we'd absolutely consider it."
Southwest, meanwhile, participated only in the Sabre GDS to a limited degree. "We've been in Sabre for years, but that's really for brick-and-mortar travel agencies. There's no online distribution of us," Krone said last year. "We're probably in our about 20th year with them, but we've not paid to be in any other CRS."