China Airlines, Southwest Partnership In US To Boost PH Tourism

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA—More travellers from the US to the Philippines, including the overseas Filipinos, are likely to enjoy cheaper and better flight connection schedules from the recent interline partnership between Taiwan’s flag carrier China Airlines (CAL) and US’ fourth largest airline operator Southwest Airlines.

This collaboration might boost Philippine tourism and expected to generate more visitor arrivals to Taiwan.

In a joint press conference of CAL and Southwest partnership at Edison Theater, Philippine Department of Tourism (PDOT) tourism attache for Los Angeles Gerry Panga said the partnership between these two giant carriers is a welcome development for our country’s tourism industry as more travellers, including thousands of our kababayans, from the United States to the Philippines will have more options on how to conveniently travel between these two countries.

“This is a very good development because we target 1.2 million travellers from the US to the Philippines, only 1/3 or 1/4 of that is coming from connections from Taipeh so the more we expand access, the more it will give opportunities for our kababayans.. more affordable tickets and better flight connection schedules,” Panga said.

“It offers a flight from Phoenix to Taipei with convenient connections via Manila and Cebu. This is very important for us as you know we are very close to Taipei only 2 hours away and we provide the best connection from the US mainland to Taipei to Cebu and Manila,” the tourism official added.

According to Panga, the Philippines is the top generating country visitor arrivals from the US in Southeast Asia.

As of June 2025, the top 3 Southeast Asian destinations are the Philippines (609,766), Thailand (551,505) and Vietnam (449,132).

The interline partnership between CAL and Southwest will allow travelers to purchase a single ticket covering flights from Taiwan to US destinations served by Southwest’s network. Southwest has the highest number of domestic passengers with more than 4,000 flights daily.

Starting August 20, for travel on or after January 19, 2026, travelers can purchase combined itineraries with both China Airlines and Southwest Airlines on a single ticket directly through China Airlines’ website for a smoother, more convenient connection experience.

“I think that this helps with the Filipino community being able to go back home to the Philippines. Many Filipinos are members of our frequent flyers program and I know that they want to be using their points to be able to go home and that would be something that we would want to talk with China Airlines this week in Dallas. It’s about making sure that people could use their frequent flyer points with our program or their miles with China Airlines’ flyers’ program,” Southwest Airlines Managing Director of Network Capacity, Strategy, and Alliances Steven Swan, said.

CAL president Kevin Chen, on the other hand, said “We would like to welcome the Filipino community here to take advantage of this new service of China Airlines and Southwest Airlines. Welcome aboard.”

Jeff Chang, CAL marketing director-The Americas, meanwhile said “Philippine market is very important to us. A lot of Filipinos love to travel. Even in our new destination, in Phoenix, we believe Philippine market is significant and very important. We will give our best service (to the Filipinos).”