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Southwest Airlines is expanding its international reach through a new partnership with South Korea’s Air Premia. This is the ninth airline to sign on with the US carrier in the past few years.
The new interline agreement allows passengers to book itineraries that combine Southwest’s domestic network with Air Premia’s transpacific flights through shared gateway airports at Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Tickets are now available through Air Premia, travel agents, and online booking platforms.
From its hub at Seoul Incheon International Airport (ICN), Air Premia serves a growing network of destinations across Asia, including Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam using a fleet of Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
As mentioned above, the agreement marks Southwest’s ninth international airline partnership to further expand its global connectivity. Through similar partnerships, Southwest customers can connect to destinations across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, even though the airline itself operates an all-domestic and near-international route network. Other partners include ANA, China Airlines, Condor, EVA Air, Icelandair, Philippine Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and Turkish Airlines.
Anthony’s Take: The partnership strengthens Southwest’s international offering while giving Air Premia customers seamless access to hundreds of destinations across the United States through Southwest’s extensive domestic network.
This year, the carrier has launched service to five new destinations:
- Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC)
- Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS)
- Santa Rosa’s Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport (STS)
- St. Thomas’ Cyril E. King Airport (STT)
- Sint Maarten’s Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM)
The airline has also been introducing customer-focused enhancements, including assigned seating, optional Extra Legroom seating, and enhanced boarding procedures, all aimed at improving the travel experience while maintaining Southwest’s signature hospitality. For decades, Southwest focused almost exclusively on domestic flying, but the carrier has increasingly embraced partnerships that allow customers to travel beyond its own network.
Anthony’s Take: This partnership is the latest to give travelers more choice, convenience, and connectivity. While these interline agreements do not offer benefits, they do help to simplify travel for many passengers.
(Image Credits: Southwest Airlines and Air Premia.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
