Southwest Airlines Reports May Traffic

DALLAS, June 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. 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 %