Big news out of Dallas today. Southwest Airlines and Canadian carrier WestJet have announced that they plan to build a codeshare partnership:

“The two airlines have completed the first step in creating a relationship that will eventually allow the carriers to offer Customers a seamless travel experience to a wide array of destinations.” (Press Release via Yahoo! Finance)

While neither airline has announced routes, schedules, or airfares at this point (they plan to give these details by late 2009), the hope among travelers on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border is that the partnership will provide greater opportunity to find cheap airfare to destinations throughout both countries.

While the partnership could be great news for passengers, the announcement is truly making waves, because it is seen as Southwest Airlines’ first foray into international travel. You might remember that back in September of last year we started to get the first inkling that Southwest was ready to expand into the global travel market.

A Southwest Airlines/WestJet partnership could also send a message to the rest of the industry regarding the survival of commercial air travel in North America. At least, that’s what WestJet President and CEO Sean Durfy is saying:

“Together we will demonstrate that low-cost, high-value airlines represent the future success of air travel.”