Southwest Airlines Reports January Traffic

Southwest Airlines January preliminary traffic statistics show that the airline flew 8.9 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in January 2016, an increase of 11.1 percent from the 8.0 billion RPMs flown in January 2015. Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 7.8 percent to 11.5 billion in January 2016, compared with January 2015 ASMs of 10.7 billion. The January 2016 load factor was a record for the month of January at 77.5 percent, compared with 75.2 percent in January 2015. Based on these results and current trends, Southwest continues to expect its first quarter 2016 operating revenue per ASM (RASM) to be