Southwest Airlines Reports October Traffic

DALLAS, Nov. 5, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) announced today that the Company flew 6.9 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in October 2010, an 8.3 percent increase from the 6.3 billion RPMs flown in October 2009. Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 5.0 percent to 8.4 billion from the October 2009 level of 8.0 billion. The load factor for the month was 81.7 percent, compared to 79.2 percent for the same period last year. For October 2010, passenger revenue per ASM is estimated to have increased approximately 11 percent as compared to October 2009.

For the ten months ended October 31, 2010, Southwest flew 64.9 billion RPMs, compared to 62.6 billion RPMs flown for the same period in 2009, an increase of 3.7 percent. Available seat miles decreased 0.5 percent to 82.0 billion from the 2009 level of 82.5 billion. The year-to-date load factor was 79.1 percent, compared to 75.9 percent for the same period last year.

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


SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.

PRELIMINARY COMPARATIVE TRAFFIC STATISTICS













                               OCTOBER



                               2010       2009       CHANGE





Revenue passengers carried     7,787,340  7,432,565  4.8 %



Enplaned passengers            9,358,790  8,776,079  6.6 %



Revenue passenger miles (000)  6,851,084  6,325,204  8.3 %



Available seat miles (000)     8,390,060  7,987,167  5.0 %



Load factor                    81.7%      79.2%      2.5 pts.



Average length of haul         880        851        3.4 %



Trips flown                    94,483     92,670     2.0 %




                               YEAR-TO-DATE



                               2010        2009        CHANGE





Revenue passengers carried     73,526,694  72,244,016  1.8 %



Enplaned passengers            88,422,351  84,727,867  4.4 %



Revenue passenger miles (000)  64,892,109  62,606,891  3.7 %



Available seat miles (000)     82,039,058  82,482,784  (0.5)%



Load factor                    79.1%       75.9%       3.2 pts.



Average length of haul         883         867         1.8 %



Trips flown                    930,797     945,041     (1.5)%

SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co.

Released November 5, 2010