Southwest Airlines Partners With AWS for Cloud Transition by 2028

Southwest Airlines (WN) has named Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud provider, initiating a transition to a fully cloud-based, artificial intelligence-enabled architecture by 2028.

The June 17, 2026, announcement outlines a shift from the carrier’s legacy on-premises technology environment to a modernized infrastructure. According to the company press release, this overhaul is designed to support operations, software development, and customer experience for its 134 million annual travelers.

Technological overhaul and AI integration

The partnership centers on deploying AI agents across multiple facets of the airline’s business. To facilitate this transition, more than 2,700 developers at Southwest are currently utilizing AWS’s Kiro, an agentic coding service, to build new features, automate testing protocols, and generate cloud infrastructure.

Lauren Woods, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Southwest Airlines, stated that the carrier is applying its focus on performance and reliability directly to its technology strategy.

“From Customer experience, to operations, to how we build the systems behind it—all of it is coming together in a way that helps our Teams move faster, make better decisions, and deliver for our Customers,” Woods said in the release.

Swami Sivasubramanian, Vice President of Agentic AI at AWS, added that the deployment of AI agents across the airline’s software development and operations demonstrates how agentic AI capabilities can deliver measurable results at scale.

Broader commercial transformation

The IT modernization effort aligns with Southwest’s ongoing commercial restructuring. On January 27, 2026, the airline officially implemented assigned and premium seating options, ending its decades-old open-seating model. This followed the May 2025 introduction of checked baggage fees, which retired the carrier’s long-standing “Bags Fly Free” policy for most passengers.

The AWS cloud transition serves as the technological backbone for these operational shifts. The modernized infrastructure will support a workforce of over 70,000 employees operating across 120 airports in 12 countries.

AirPro News analysis

We view Southwest’s 2028 cloud transition deadline as a necessary timeline to support its new revenue models. The shift away from open seating and free baggage requires significantly more complex passenger service systems, seat assignment algorithms, and dynamic pricing engines than the airline historically operated. By moving off legacy on-premises servers and leveraging AWS’s AI development tools, Southwest is attempting to reduce the technical debt that has previously constrained its ability to rapidly deploy new commercial products and recover from operational disruptions.

Sources: Southwest Airlines Co.