Icelandair and Southwest Airlines on Wednesday signed an agreement to begin a bilateral partnership that will allow travellers to “easily connect” between the two carriers’ networks.

The deal, first announced in September 2024, will include connections via Baltimore, Nashville and Denver and marks the first international airline partnership for the US low-cost carrier.

Connections via Baltimore will launch in February, while additional gateways in Nashville and Denver will be made available for customers of both airlines “this summer”, according to the carriers.

Icelandair chief commercial officer, Tómas Ingason, said: “The partnership will open new and exciting connections for our customers onwards with Southwest to numerous destinations in North America, and at the same time, their customers will benefit from our extensive connections to Iceland and onwards to Europe.

“We welcome Southwest to our strong partnership portfolio in the US and ever-growing group of partner airlines and look forward to working together in offering our customers smooth and enjoyable travel experiences.”

Icelandair currently has 11 codeshare partnerships and more than 70 interline partners. Its network consists of 34 destinations in Europe, 17 in North America and four connections into Greenland.