Southwest Airlines Reports January Traffic

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DALLAS, Feb. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) announced today that the Company flew 5.1 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in January 2009, a 6.4 percent decrease from the 5.5 billion RPMs flown in January 2008. Available seat miles (ASMs) decreased 4.4 percent to 8.2 billion from the January 2008 level of 8.5 billion. The load factor for the month was 62.8 percent, compared to 64.2 percent for the same period last year. For January 2009, passenger revenue per ASM is estimated to have increased in the six percent range compared to January 2008.

This release, as well as past news releases on Southwest, are available online at http://www.southwest.com/?src=INVRINVJATR000000090204.


                          SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.
                PRELIMINARY COMPARATIVE TRAFFIC STATISTICS

                                               JANUARY
                                               -------

                                       2009       2008         CHANGE
                                       ----       ----         ------


    Revenue passengers carried    5,991,253    6,635,548        (9.7)%

    Enplaned passengers           6,993,566    7,654,337        (8.6)%

    Revenue passenger miles (000) 5,135,380    5,485,282        (6.4)%

    Available seat miles (000)    8,172,539    8,548,433        (4.4)%

    Load factor                        62.8%        64.2%   (1.4) pts.

    Average length of haul              857          827         3.6%

    Trips flown                      94,606      100,360        (5.7)%

SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co.

Released February 4, 2009