Southwest Airlines Reports February Traffic

DALLAS, March 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) announced today that the Company flew 5.4 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in February 2008, a 12.0 percent increase from the 4.8 billion RPMs flown in February 2007. Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 9.0 percent to 7.9 billion from the February 2007 level of 7.3 billion. The load factor for the month was 68.6 percent, compared to 66.8 percent for the same period last year.

For the first two months of 2008, Southwest flew 10.9 billion RPMs, compared to the 10.0 billion RPMs recorded for the same period in 2007, an increase of 8.9 percent. Available seat miles increased 7.0 percent to 16.5 billion from the 2007 level of 15.4 billion. The year-to-date load factor was 66.3 percent, compared to 65.2 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=IR_030508.

                   SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.
          PRELIMINARY COMPARATIVE TRAFFIC STATISTICS

                                        FEBRUARY

                             2008         2007      CHANGE


    Revenue passengers
     carried               6,769,154    6,107,788    10.8 %

    Enplaned passengers    7,744,620    6,987,064    10.8 %

    Revenue passenger
     miles (000)           5,427,453    4,845,518    12.0 %

    Available seat miles
     (000)                 7,908,038    7,258,298     9.0 %

    Load factor                68.6%        66.8%   1.8 pts.

    Average length of
     haul                        802          793     1.1 %

    Trips flown               92,887       85,027     9.2 %


                                    YEAR-TO-DATE

                             2008          2007       CHANGE


    Revenue passengers
     carried               13,404,702    12,435,919    7.8 %

    Enplaned passengers    15,398,957    14,272,013    7.9 %

    Revenue passenger
     miles (000)           10,912,735    10,024,645    8.9 %

    Available seat miles
     (000)                 16,456,471    15,378,565    7.0 %

    Load factor                 66.3%         65.2%  1.1 pts.

    Average length of
     haul                         814           806    1.0 %

    Trips flown               193,247       179,777    7.5 %

SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co.

Released March 5, 2008