Southwest Airlines is now available on travel deal search engine Kayak, just a few months after it joined Google Flights.
Southwest, which has traditionally held to keeping its airfares available on its website and mobile app, is doing away with the old practice and trying out search engines like Kayak. Beginning Aug. 5, Southwest’s airfares were integrated into Kayak’s travel website.
“This is a great development for travelers,” said Steve Hafner, CEO of Kayak in a release. “We first started showing Southwest in 2022 to KAYAK for business customers. We’re thrilled to expand that relationship to the millions of leisure travelers who use KAYAK.”
It will allow customers to compare Southwest fares and flight times with competing carriers, which was more difficult before the Dallas-based company began partnering with third-party websites to sell tickets.
“We’re excited to continue finding ways to expose more consumers to the appeal of our unique combination of value, friendly and flexible policies and breadth of flight service that’s built around the hundreds of unique routes Southwest offers among 117 airports across 11 countries,” a Southwest spokesperson said in an email.
In May, Southwest joined other major airlines on Google’s flight search engine, which lets travelers look at one airline there and another back. It began with a “pilot” for its partnership with Google.
It’s one of many changes Southwest is making as it faces pressure from investors to improve lagging financial results, inching it towards an airline model that resembles its competitors. In its latest quarterly earning call, Southwest announced it would end open seating and add premium seating options. More information is expected at its investor day in September.