Southwest Airlines says it has captured a 10% share of domestic corporate travel bookings settled by ARC in the two years since it began offering its content to TMC on three major GDSs.
The figure, presented by the carrier during its Investor Day presentation on Wednesday, was derived from ARC data.
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Ryan Green, the company’s chief commercial officer, said:
Southwest began taking corporate bookings with the Travelport GDS in May and July of 2020 and began selling content to TMC through the Amadeus GDS in October of that year. In July 2021, Southwest content went live for his Saber corporate booking, making Southwest content available for the first time in each of his three major GDSs.
According to data presented by Southwest, the share of domestic TMC bookings settled by ARC went from less than 1% in the second quarter of 2020 to 6% by the end of last year. Now it has jumped to 10%.
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Green pointed out that Southwest Airlines doesn’t offer expensive first-class seats, so its dollar share of domestic TMC bookings is less than 10%. He also said his career has made the biggest forays in small business accounts.
American Airlines has the largest share of TMC domestic bookings at 30%, followed by Delta Air Lines at 28% and United Airlines at 23%, according to Southwest analysis.
“As business travel continues to recover, the majority of domestic corporate travel is being flown by coach, and there is an excellent opportunity to further increase the share of corporate travel,” Green said.
