Southwest Airlines Reports January Traffic

DALLAS, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. announced today that the Company flew 5.5 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in January 2008, a 5.9 percent increase from the 5.2 billion RPMs flown in January 2007. Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 5.3 percent to 8.5 billion from the January 2007 level of 8.1 billion. The load factor for the month was 64.2 percent, compared to 63.8 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_020508.

                           SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.
                   PRELIMINARY COMPARATIVE TRAFFIC STATISTICS

                                                       JANUARY

                                             2008         2007      CHANGE


    Revenue passengers carried              6,635,207    6,328,131    4.9 %

    Enplaned passengers                     7,654,262    7,284,949    5.1 %

    Revenue passenger miles (000)           5,485,282    5,179,127    5.9 %

    Available seat miles (000)              8,548,433    8,120,267    5.3 %

    Load factor                                  64.2%        63.8%   0.4 pts.

    Average length of haul                        827          818    1.1 %

    Trips flown                               100,360       94,750    5.9 %

SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co.

Released February 5, 2008