You might soon be able to take a Southwest Airlines flight to Europe.
On Tuesday, the budget airline asked the Department of Transportation for permission to fly to any country with which the US has an Open Skies agreement.
The State Department lists 123 such countries, representing most of the world.
Meanwhile, Southwest currently serves 10 countries outside the US. Other than Mexico, they are all in Central America or the Caribbean.
Open Skies agreements allow airlines to operate between two countries without restrictions on frequency or capacity.
Southwest also wants permission to transport “persons, property, and mail” to any country that enters an aviation agreement with the US in the future.
In the filing, the airline said that being granted such permission “will promote competition and increase the traveling public’s ability to access Southwest’s high-quality, low-fare service.”
A Southwest spokesperson told Reuters that the filing was “not necessarily indicative of anything forthcoming,” and that it was taking advantage of streamlined regulatory procedures. The airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Southwest only operates Boeing 737 jets, which have a maximum range of around 4,370 miles, meaning the airline could not immediately operate true long-haul flights, but could fly some shorter routes across the Atlantic.
The filing is the latest sign of Southwest shaking things up as falling profits force the airline to rethink its business model.
It pioneered the no-frills theme taken up by other budget airlines around the world, which rely on add-on fees and keeping planes in the sky as much as possible.
However, budget airlines have struggled post-pandemic, contending with changing consumer habits, increased fuel and labor costs, and domestic overcapacity that has made it harder to fill planes.
Last July, Southwest announced that it would end its signature unassigned-seating policy and start charging for premium options with more legroom.
In March, it said it would start charging passengers to check bags. That came six months after saying it wouldn’t end this other signature policy, with “two bags fly free” listed as a registered trademark.
Tuesday’s filing isn’t the first sign of Southwest’s plans to expand operations.
In February, it began interline operations with Icelandair, which lets passengers travel with both airlines on one ticket. That means you could start on a Southwest plane, then go on to many cities in Europe via Reykjavík.
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