Hyderabad: Southwest Airlines has launched its first global innovation centre outside the US in Hyderabad, as the American carrier looks to tap India’s engineering and AI talent pool to support its next phase of technology-led growth.The Hyderabad centre, inaugurated on Wednesday will scale to 1,000 employees over time and focus on areas including AI, data platforms, cloud engineering, DevOps, cybersecurity and enterprise technology.The move comes as Hyderabad continues to attract global capability centres (GCCs) from multinational firms looking to build large-scale engineering and innovation hubs in India.“We’re not thinking about this as a back office. We want this to be a location where people build careers and leadership capabilities," Lauren Woods, executive vice president and chief information officer at Southwest Airlines, told ET, adding the airline zeroed in on Hyderabad because of its engineering talent base, universities and growing aerospace and technology ecosystem.“There’s strong investment in technology, great infrastructure, aerospace talent and a mature ecosystem of companies and engineering capabilities," she said. Initially, the centre will support infrastructure technologies, network engineering, cloud and enterprise operations. Over time, Southwest plans to expand the scope into AI, data engineering and broader software development capabilities. Hiring will span entry-level engineers to senior leadership roles.The facility was inaugurated by Telangana IT and industries minister Duddilla Sridhar Babu, who said the investment reinforces Hyderabad’s emergence as a hub for aviation and enterprise technology innovation, while also inviting the airline to also look at starting airline operations here.“Southwest Airlines’ decision reflects Hyderabad’s growing importance in aviation engineering and global mobility innovation. Alongside prestigious institutions such as DRDO, RCI, and DMRL, Hyderabad is steadily emerging as a strategic centre where aviation, space-tech, defence, and deep-tech are converging at scale," he said.The launch adds to a series of recent GCC investments in Hyderabad by multinational firms including BASF, Vanguard, Marriott International and HCA Healthcare.According to the Telangana government, Hyderabad currently hosts more than 450 GCCs employing over 135,000 professionals across sectors including technology, aerospace, healthcare and financial services.