Southwest Airlines Reports May Traffic

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DALLAS, June 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) announced today that the Company flew 6.7 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in May 2008, a 6.5 percent increase from the 6.3 billion RPMs flown in May 2007. Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 5.2 percent to 8.9 billion from the May 2007 level of 8.5 billion. The load factor for the month was 74.9 percent, compared to 74.0 percent for the same period last year.

For the first five months of 2008, Southwest flew 30.5 billion RPMs, compared to the 28.3 billion RPMs recorded for the same period of 2007, an increase of 7.9 percent. Available seat miles increased 5.9 percent to 42.7 billion from the 2007 level of 40.3 billion. The year-to-date load factor was 71.4 percent, compared to 70.1 percent for the same period last year.

This release, as well as past news releases on Southwest, are available online at http://www.southwest.com/?src=INVRINVMAYT000000080603.



                            SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.
                  PRELIMINARY COMPARATIVE TRAFFIC STATISTICS

                                                   MAY

                                       2008         2007       CHANGE


     Revenue passengers carried      8,136,968    7,823,844     4.0 %

     Enplaned passengers             9,304,834    8,929,948     4.2 %

     Revenue passenger miles (000)   6,672,655    6,268,313     6.5 %

     Available seat miles (000)      8,914,187    8,473,683     5.2 %

     Load factor                         74.9%        74.0%  0.9 pts.

     Average length of haul                820          801     2.4 %

     Trips flown                       102,294       98,504     3.8 %



                                                YEAR-TO-DATE

                                       2008         2007        CHANGE


     Revenue passengers carried     37,308,949    35,163,445     6.1 %

     Enplaned passengers            42,807,847    40,267,998     6.3 %

     Revenue passenger miles (000)  30,526,198    28,299,372     7.9 %

     Available seat miles (000)     42,733,005    40,341,540     5.9 %

     Load factor                         71.4%         70.1%   1.3 pts.

     Average length of haul                818           805     1.6 %

     Trips flown                       497,391       471,072     5.6 %

SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co.

Released June 3, 2008