Southwest Airlines Reports July Traffic Up 13.7 Percent

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV) announced today that the Company flew 3.4 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in July 1999, a 13.7 percent increase from the 3.0 billion RPMs flown in July 1998. Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 10.0 percent to 4.5 billion from the July 1998 level of 4.1 billion. The load factor for the month was 75.6 percent, up 2.5 points from 1998.

For the first seven months of 1999, Southwest flew 20.9 billion RPMs, compared with the 18.1 billion RPMs recorded for the same period of 1998, an increase of 15.5 percent. Available seat miles increased 10.2 percent to 29.9 billion from the 1998 level of 27.1 billion. The year-to-date load factor was 70.1 percent, up 3.2 points from the same period last year.

This press release, as well as past releases, can be accessed on the Southwest Airlines internet site at: http://www.southwest.com/.

                          SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.
                      COMPARATIVE TRAFFIC STATISTICS
                                JULY 1999

                                                  JULY
                                  1999            1998            CHANGE


  Revenue passengers carried   5,177,226       4,798,102           7.9%

  Revenue passenger miles  3,408,492,042   2,997,425,346          13.7%

  Available seat miles     4,510,629,042   4,100,336,064          10.0%

  Load factor                       75.6%           73.1%          2.5 pts.

  Average length of haul             658             625           5.3%

  Trips flown                     72,283          69,389           4.2%


                                             YEAR-TO-DATE

                                 1999            1998             CHANGE

  Revenue passengers carried  32,927,607      30,413,126           8.3%

  Revenue passenger miles 20,925,990,325  18,121,413,832          15.5%

  Available seat miles    29,851,422,623  27,083,415,288          10.2%

  Load factor                       70.1%           66.9%          3.2 pts.

  Average length of haul             636             596           6.7%

  Trips flown                    484,858         465,543           4.1%

Source: Southwest Airlines Co.

Contact: Investor Relations of Southwest Airlines Co., 214-792-4415