November 7, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has signed an interline deal with one of the most popular low-cost operators in the world to connect Filipinos to more destinations in the US.
PAL yesterday announced it has entered into an interline agreement with Southwest Airlines to offer its passengers more destinations to reach in the US.
The partnership allows passengers to book just one ticket when traveling with PAL to the US and transferring to another destination through Southwest.
Given this, Filipinos flying with PAL gain access to the network of airports served by Southwest, which is one of the widest in the US. In particular, Southwest can ferry guests booked with PAL from the gateways in Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.
From these airports, Southwest operates about four dozen domestic arrivals and departures a day. PAL vice president for revenue management Christoph Gaertner said the Southwest partnership offers passengers ease of transit when traveling the US.
“As we continue to expand our global reach, this collaboration provides more travel options and greater flexibility, giving guests access to a wider range of destinations in the US,” Gaertner said.
Based on Southwest’s website, the airline is able to fly to 117 gateways across 11 countries, but its competitiveness lies in its ability to cover nearly all US states.
From Seattle, for instance, Southwest flies non-stop to 15 cities in the US, including major hubs in California (Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose) and Texas (Austin, Dallas, Houston).
Southwest chief operating officer Andrew Watterson said interline deals such as the one signed with PAL gives passengers the opportunity to reach more places. In entering the partnership with PAL, Southwest studied the travel demand emanating from the Philippines.
Right now, most carriers flying from the Philippines to the US reach only the major cities in the West Coast, such as San Francisco. This gives Southwest the advantage to bring travelers landing in the West Coast to central and eastern states of the US.
“With nearly 90 flights daily that touch the Hawaiian island and as California’s largest air carrier, Southwest is positioned like no other airline in serving PAL’s passengers arriving in or departing from the US,” Watterson said.
As for PAL, it is waiting for the arrival of new widebody jets, in the form of Airbus A350-1000, before it decides on expanding to new cities in the US.