Southwest Airlines opened its first technology centre outside the United States in Hyderabad in May 2026. The Global Innovation Centre was inaugurated on May 20 in the Argus building at Sattva Knowledge City, Gachibowli. Over the next few years the airline plans to grow it to about 1,000 engineers and technology professionals, with AI, analytics and cybersecurity at the core of the work.
Southwest began flying out of Dallas Love Field in June 1971 and still runs the business from Dallas. It carried about 134 million passengers in 2025 and earned roughly $28.1 billion in revenue that year, with a workforce of close to 73,000. Its fleet of around 800 aircraft makes it the largest Boeing 737 operator in the world.
What the centre will do
The airline has leased about 20,000 sq ft to begin with, enough for roughly 200 people, and had hired more than a dozen staff by launch. Early roles sit in platform engineering, cloud engineering, network engineering, data science and machine learning. The wider brief takes in digital engineering, analytics, cybersecurity and new product development, along with keeping aviation systems secure and scalable across the Southwest network.
Southwest has been clear that it does not want a back office shifted overseas. The centre is meant to own engineering and AI work. Krishna Kallepalli, Vice President and Global Head of Innovation for India, heads the site. Lauren Woods, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, and Tom Merritt, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, were part of the leadership group that met the Telangana government ahead of the opening.
Why Hyderabad
Southwest pointed to the depth of engineering and analytics talent in the city as the deciding factor. Telangana IT and Industries Minister D. Sridhar Babu attended the inauguration and has made the case that the state’s infrastructure, talent and governance give it an edge over rival states. Hyderabad now hosts more than 450 capability centres employing over 135,000 people, and the state wants these units to grow into what it calls Global Value Centres.
Southwest’s India footprint
This is new ground. Southwest does not fly to India, and the Hyderabad centre is its first technology base outside its US operations. Plans for a Hyderabad innovation centre first surfaced in late 2025, and the airline moved from announcement to an operating office in about seven months.
What it signals
US airlines have rarely set up their own engineering centres in India, so a domestic carrier choosing to build AI and cyber capability here, rather than buying it from a vendor, stands out. It also adds aviation to a Hyderabad base already heavy with banking, technology and life sciences units, and shows that travel companies now see India as a place to build core systems.
At a glance
- Home country: United States
- Sector: Aerospace and Aviation
- City: Hyderabad
- Date: May 2026
- Status: Operational
- Scale: About 1,000 technology hires planned over the next few years; starting space of about 20,000 sq ft for some 200 people
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