This, along with the recommendations of the president and NC, is why I'm inclined to vote yes at this point. We got most of our goals at the negotiating table (there's still lots of room for improvement) without sacrificing our scope. Most codeshare will need the SWAPA seal of approval if this deal is ratified and I feel that leaves us with lots of leverage during future negotiations.

Southwest Airlines may have to go through pilots first for codeshare deals

In a recent internal memo to employees, Southwest Airlines signaled it could be interested in inking codeshare deals with foreign carriers as one means of boosting revenue. Codesharing allows carriers to put their respective flight numbers on flights operated by partner airlines and thereby share in the ticket revenue on those flights.

But such deals could be a little tougher — or should I say more complicated — to do thanks to the way the tentative contract now being voted on by Southwest Airlines pilots is written.

The tentative agreement now up for a vote, sources say, does not include any specific language about what foreign carriers Southwest pilots would agree to as codeshare partners with the airline. Thus, if Southwest gets to the point where the carrier is certain it wants to ink a codeshare deal with one or more foreign carriers, it will have to negotiate the acceptability of each prospective codeshare deal with a negotiating team from the Southwest Airlines Pilots' Association (SWAPA) that represents some 8,500 Southwest pilots.

The omission of any list of carriers that SWAPA would greenlight as codeshare partners is in large part a result of what happened during the negotiating process for a previous tentative agreement that was voted down in the fall of 2015. During those negotiations, Southwest Airlines management presented a list of foreign carriers it wanted the pilots union to agree to as allowable codeshare partners.

The hitch, however, was that Southwest management wanted the list of approved carriers to be withheld from SWAPA rank and file for competitive reasons. But the SWAPA negotiating team at the time wouldn't agree to any contract language that kept the list of foreign carriers and possible codeshare partners hidden from the rank and file membership.

In the rush to get a second tentative agreement finalized in recent months, no alternative proposal on how codesharing deals would be handled was written into the TA now up for ratification. So, any possible codeshare deal Southwest management wants will have to be negotiated with pilots on a case by case basis. That is if the new tentative agreement is ratified.

That scenario could change if the new tentative agreement is voted down, and management and SWAPA return to the bargaining table. The results of the vote will be known on Nov. 7.

A Southwest spokesman said the airline was unable to comment.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) has its largest hub at Chicago's Midway Airport, where more than 1,100 Southwest pilots are domiciled.

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