Southwest Airlines Co. plans to target corporate business travelers with the formation of Southwest Business.
Southwest Business will give travel managers the ability to work within Travelport’s global distribution systems (GDS) and the Amadeus Travel Platform, a release noted.
Southwest has gained more business travelers over the years, thanks to frequent service to many of its destinations, no reservations change fees and the ability to check two bags at no extra charge. The lack of baggage charges is a boon for people working at trade shows or other events. Southwest does not offer more generous business class seats.
Southwest is a minor player at Philadelphia International Airport, but has added flights in the past couple of years at the airport, dominated by American Airlines.
Baltimore-Washington International Airport, which is used by some Delaware corporate travelers, offers non-stop Southwest flights to 66 cities.
The company announced a new agreement to bring industry-standard processes to the Travelport and Amadeus GDS channels including allowing travel managers the ability to book, change, cancel, and modify reservations.
Southwest is also partnering with ARC to implement industry-standard processes to handle the reporting and settlement of tickets booked through Travelport and Amadeus channels.
Southwest made a conversation to the Amadeus system as the company added international routes and most recently service to Hawaii.
On the consumer side, Southwest has avoided selling seats and paying commissions to travel agencies and sites.
Southwest is also investing and enhancing its online booking tool, SWABIZ. With recent upgrades, the site offers air, car, and hotel booking functions. SWABIZ also introduced more robust reporting tools aimed at putting corporate travel managers in control of their organization’s travel programs.
Throughout the past two years, Southwest has been laying a foundation for the upgrade by adding account managers across the United States, a new Business-to-Business Partner Desk and a new look-and-feel to its SWABIZ booking tool, a release noted.
