Southwest Airlines Reports August Traffic

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DALLAS, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) announced today that the Company flew 6.6 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in August 2008, a 5.2 percent decrease from the 7.0 billion RPMs flown in August 2007. Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 1.5 percent to 8.9 billion from the August 2007 level of 8.7 billion. The load factor for the month was 74.6 percent, compared to 80.0 percent for the same period last year.

For the eight months ended August 31, 2008, Southwest flew 50.9 billion RPMs, compared to the 49.2 billion RPMs recorded for the same period of 2007, an increase of 3.6 percent. Available seat miles increased 5.1 percent to 69.4 billion from the 2007 level of 66.1 billion. The year-to-date load factor was 73.3 percent, compared to 74.4 percent for the same period last year.

This news release, as well as past news releases on Southwest, are available online at http://www.southwest.com/?src=INVRINVAUTR000000080804.



                            SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.
                  PRELIMINARY COMPARATIVE TRAFFIC STATISTICS

                                                          AUGUST

                                             2008          2007        CHANGE

    Revenue passengers carried            7,751,171     8,273,072      (6.3)%

    Enplaned passengers                   8,970,247     9,605,342      (6.6)%

    Revenue passenger miles (000)         6,630,104     6,995,510      (5.2)%

    Available seat miles (000)            8,882,141     8,746,716       1.5 %

    Load factor                               74.6%         80.0%  (5.4) pts.

    Average length of haul                      855           846       1.1 %

    Trips flown                             101,433       101,407       0.0 %



                                                       YEAR-TO-DATE

                                             2008          2007        CHANGE

    Revenue passengers carried           61,315,942    59,970,374       2.2 %

    Enplaned passengers                  70,592,742    69,055,656       2.2 %

    Revenue passenger miles (000)        50,919,072    49,172,552       3.6 %

    Available seat miles (000)           69,439,029    66,063,302       5.1 %

    Load factor                               73.3%         74.4%   (1.1) pts.

    Average length of haul                      830           820       1.2 %

    Trips flown                             802,812       769,230       4.4 %

SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co.

Released September 4, 2008