Southwest Airlines Reports January Traffic

DALLAS, Feb. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) announced today that the Company flew 6.2 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in January 2011, a 13.2 percent increase from the 5.5 billion RPMs flown in January 2010.  Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 7.5 percent to 8.2 billion from the January 2010 level of 7.6 billion.  The load factor for the month was 76.0 percent, compared to 72.1 percent for the same period last year.  For January 2011, passenger revenue per ASM is estimated to have increased in the eight to nine percent range compared to January 2010.  

This release, as well as past news releases on Southwest, are available online at southwest.com.

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.

PRELIMINARY COMPARATIVE TRAFFIC STATISTICS



                               JANUARY



                               2011       2010       CHANGE





Revenue passengers carried     6,847,118  6,366,306  7.6 %



Enplaned passengers            8,307,319  7,576,013  9.7 %



Revenue passenger miles (000)  6,226,241  5,499,087  13.2 %



Available seat miles (000)     8,194,165  7,622,575  7.5 %



Load factor                    76.0%      72.1%      3.9 pts.



Average length of haul         909        864        5.2 %



Trips flown                    92,018     88,406     4.1 %

SOURCE Southwest Airlines