Southwest Airlines – a Corporate Partner of the FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub – is on a transformation journey to address the evolving needs and desires of its customers. In this interview, ahead of her participation at FTE Global – the “CES of Aviation” taking place in Long Beach, California, on 9 to 11 September 2025 – Andrea Goodpasture, Managing Director – Airport Affairs, shares how Southwest Airlines is focused on delivering an experience that meets customers’ expectations for how and where they spend their time and invest their money.
View the full FTE Global 2025 schedule at a glance >> Register for FTE Global 2025 >>Goodpasture is participating in a key session at FTE Global titled ‘The future of business & commercial strategies for airports’. “The key messages I plan to discuss at FTE Global 2025 are the importance of technology in the airport experience, including concessions offerings, and operations to deliver a high-quality service to the customer,” Goodpasture explains. “I will also share my thoughts on what it takes to deliver this experience successfully.”
The central question posed by the conference session is: ‘Are we at the threshold of airports evolving to become digital companies that run experiential businesses, and what would the new business models and organisational structures be behind that?’
“This is such an important question because airports are at varying states of this transformational journey,” says Goodpasture. “So many aspects of our lives are moving to a digital environment, so it stands to reason that customers expect a similar experience during their travel journey. In order to deliver this, however, airport leaders will need to research, plan, and prepare accordingly.”
Southwest Airlines is on a transformation journey of its own, to address the evolving needs and desires of its customers. “You can see this transformation from how we are interacting with our customers from the start of their travel journey – the booking process – where we’ve broadened our distribution to make our service available to customers at more of the places they shop, all the way to the product we deliver inflight, by bringing more options onboard like the opportunity to select a seat and even select a seat with extended leg room,” Goodpasture shares. “All of this transformation is aimed at the same thing airports are working to deliver: an experience that meets the customers’ expectations for how and where they spend their time and invest their money.”
Looking ahead, Goodpasture is eager to participate at FTE Global – the “CES of Aviation” taking place in Long Beach, California, on 9 to 11 September 2025. “I am so excited about FTE Global 2025! It is going to be a terrific opportunity to share ideas and learn from the brightest minds of the travel industry! Having this opportunity to network with colleagues and hear from them at the various sessions is incredible and I am really looking forward to seeing everyone in Long Beach, CA!”
Hear more from Southwest Airlines at FTE Global – the “CES of Aviation” taking place in Long Beach, California, on 9 to 11 September 2025. Sree Samudrala, Director of Artificial Intelligence & Automation, Southwest Airlines, is participating in ‘The FTE AI Symposium – Part 2: A deep-dive into Agentic AI and the move towards Artificial General Intelligence’, and Andrea Goodpasture, Managing Director- Airport Affairs, Southwest Airlines, is speaking in a session titled ‘The future of business & commercial strategies for airports – are we at the threshold of airports evolving to become digital companies that run experiential businesses, and what would the new business models and organisational structures be behind that?’ Meanwhile, Kevin Kleist, Head of Emerging Trends, Southwest Airlines, is participating in three sessions titled ‘How do we now revolutionise the gate and boarding experience, and other key airport pinch-points?’, ‘Crowdsourced Safety: What 4,400 Photos Can Teach AI (and us)’, and ‘Pilot stories: What are hard lessons learned, and secrets, to a successful innovation journey?’
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