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Southwest Airlines Fact Sheet

Leadership:
Gary Kelly, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer & President

Daily Departures:
More than 3,200 flights a day

Employees:
Nearly 35,000 total Employees throughout the Southwest system.

Stock:
Common stock is traded under the symbol LUV on the NYSE.

2009 Financial Statistics:


Net income: $99 million Net income, excluding special items: $143 million Total passengers carried: 86 million Total RPMs: 74.5 billion Average passenger load factor: 76 percent Total operating revenue: $10.4 billion

Fun Facts:
Southwest received 90,043 resumes and hired 831 new Employees in 2009. In 2009 Southwest served 63.2 million cans of soda, juices, and water; 14.3 million alcoholic beverages; 14 million bags of pretzels; 90 million bags of peanuts; 17.7 million Select-ASnacks; and 33.5 million other snacks.

Southwest consumed approximately 1.4 billion gallons of jet fuel in 2009. In 2009, Southwest moved 182 million pounds of cargo. The shortest daily Southwest flight is between Ft. Myers (RSW) and Orlando (MCO) (133 miles). The longest daily Southwest flight is between Providence (PVD) and Las Vegas (LAS) (2,363 miles). Southwest has 1,164 married couples. In other words, 2,328 Southwest Employees have spouses who also work for the Company.

Southwest Airlines Distinctions:


Southwests average passenger airfare is $114.61, and the avera ge passenger trip length is about 863 miles (YTD as of December 31, 2009). Southwest Airlines has consistently received the lowest ratio of complaints per passengers boarded of all Major U.S. carriers that have been reporting statistics to the Department of Transportation (DOT) since September 1987, which is when the DOT began tracking Customer Satisfaction statistics and publishing its Air Travel Consumer Report. The airline adopted the first profit-sharing plan in the U.S. airline industry in 1973. Through this plan and others, Employees own about 8 percent of the Company stock. The airline is about 83 percent* unionized.
(*This percentage represents a total Employee headcount of fulltime and parttime, active and inactive Employees who are unionized.)

Southwest Airlines is a member of the FORTUNE 500. The Ronald McDonald House program, cornerstone of the Ronald McDonald Childrens Charities, is the primary corporate charity of Southwest Airlines. Annually, the Company sponsors the Southwest Airlines LUV Classic golf tournaments whose proceeds benefit various Ronald McDonald Houses and have totaled close to $11 million over the past 24 years.

Southwest Airlines Recognitions:


In December 2009, Southwest Airlines topped the list of the 50 best U.S. places to work by Glassdoor.com. In November 2009, Southwest Airlines was named Best Low Cost/No Frills Airline in the OAG Airline Industry Awards. Additionally, Southwest Airlines was named as a finalist for Best Airline based in North America. In November 2009, Southwest Airlines was recognized with an InfoWorld 100 Award for its Automated Outbound Messaging (AOM) system. In November 2009, Zagat named Southwest Airlines Best ValueDomestic; Best Consumer Ontime EstimatesDomestic; and Best Luggage PolicyDomestic.

In November, 2009, Southwest Airlines was recognized as Favorite Domestic Airline and ranked #1 in Best Customer Service, Best Airfare Prices, Best On-Time Service, Best Baggage Service, and Best Value Frequent Flier program, among others, in the 2009 Readers Choice Awards by Smarter Travel. In November 2009, Southwest Airlines was listed as one of the Top 50 Companies Recognized as Leaders in Corporate Social Responsibility by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and Reputation Institute. In October 2009, www.nutsaboutsouthwest.com was awarded Best Blog for the third year in a row at the PR News Platinum Awards. In September 2009, Southwest Airlines ranked #179 out of 500 in Newsweeks Green Ranking of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the US. Within the category of Media, Travel & Leisure Southwest ranked #17 out of 35 and was the highest ranking airline! In August 2009, Southwest Airlines was named Best Domestic Airline, Best Domestic Airline Customer Service, and Best Low Cost Carrier by Executive Travel magazines 2009 Leading Edge Awards. In June 2009, Southwest Airlines was named to MSN Moneys Customer Service Hall of Fame. In April 2009, Southwest Airlines received the American Brand Excellence Award for Travel, and was recognized as the 2009 Grand Award Winner in the City Business Journal Networks Brand Excellence Awards. In April 2009, Southwest Airlines was included in BusinessWeeks ranking of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World. In March 2009, Southwest Airlines was ranked #3 on CampusGrottos list of Best College Internship Programs. In March 2009, Southwest Airlines was Ranked #1 in the category for Airlines in Institutional Investors magazine poll of Americas Most Shareholder Friendly Companies. In 2009, Southwest Airlines was named the top U.S. airline on the University of Michigans American Customer Satisfaction Index. Southwest Airlines was recognized as a 2009 Corporation of the Year by MANA, a National Latina Organization. Southwest Airlines was named the seventh most admired Company in FORTUNE magazines ranking of the 50 Most Admired Companies in the World; the only U.S. airline to make the list th and the 13 consecutive year that Southwest has been named to the Most Admired List. For the 11 consecutive year, Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards took top honors and was st awarded first place in Best Award Redemption category at the 21 Annual Freddie Awards. The Best Award Redemption category was introduced in 1998 and no other frequent flyer program has ever won! In addition Rapid Rewards placed in the top five in five other categories, including: Program of the Year; Best Website for southwest.com; Best Member Communcations; Best Bonus Promotion; and Best Customer Service.
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In a 2008 TIME.com survey of the friendliest and stingiest airlines, Southwest Airlines ranked no.1 for being the Friendliest Airlines. In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked the dependability of the nations 10 major carriers and Southwest Airlines topped the list as the number one Most Reliable Airline. Institutional Investor magazine recognized Southwest Airlines as one of the Top Shareholder Friendly Companies in 2008. Southwest Airlines was included in the Top 500 Most Innovative Users of Technology list by Information Week. The National Aviation Hall of Fame honored Herb Kelleher in its enshrine class of 2008. Southwest Airlines Cargo was recognized for its excellence in air cargo for the fifth straight year, named Airline of the Year by the Express Delivery & Logistics Association (XLA).

southwest.com
In 2009, online bookings reached 81 percent via southwest.com, compared to approximately 78 percent in 2008. More than 8 million people subscribe to Southwests weekly Click N Save e -mails. In the fourth quarter of 2009, approximately 79 percent of Southwest Customers are checking in online or at a kiosk. 66 percent of Fortune 500 Companies are enrolled in SWABIZ. Southwest was the first airline to establish a home page on the Internet. Initially, five Employees comprised Southwests web site development team, and the site took about nine months to create. In September 2009, southwest.com was the 5 largest travel site and largest airline site in terms of unique visitors (source: Comscore MediaMetrix). Nielsen/Netratings also reported that southwest.com was the largest airline site in terms of unique visitors. The Southwest Shortcut feature on southwest.com is the first online tool that helps Customers find the lowest fare based on availability over an entire month. DING!, a downloadable desktop application, available for both PC and MAC users, was introduced in February 2005, to notify Customers of exclusive hot offers. Southwest was the first airline to implement this type of tool. In addition to flights, Customers are also able to make car, hotel, cruise, and complete vacation package reservations on southwest.com.
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