Southwest Airlines will go live in Travelport on May
4.
The launch will come even though Southwest has virtually
eliminated capital projects this year in order to save more than $1 billion
during the Covid-19 crisis, said CFO Tammy Romo during the airline's Q1 earnings call.
Romo called the GDS launch a “critical work stream.”
Southwest announced last August that it would for the first
time offer full functionality in a GDS. The Travelport launch is to be followed
by a launch in the Amadeus system.
The carrier has had a limited content arrangement with Sabre
since the 1990s. But travel advisors who book the carrier through Sabre must call
the airline to make ticket modifications.
Within Travelport and later Amadeus, travel advisors will
have industry-standard ticketing and settlement capabilities for Southwest.