OREANDA-NEWS. June 11, 2015. Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) announced today that the Company flew 10.2 billion revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in May 2015, an 8.5 percent increase from the 9.4 billion RPMs flown in May 2014.  Available seat miles (ASMs) increased 7.6 percent to 12.1 billion in May 2015, compared with the May 2014 level of 11.2 billion.  The May 2015 load factor was a record 84.4 percent, compared with 83.7 percent in May 2014.  For May 2015, passenger revenue per ASM (PRASM) is estimated to have decreased approximately 6.0 percent, compared with May 2014. 

Gary C. Kelly, Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Solid traffic and revenue trends continued in May, and we remain on track to produce record second quarter profits, excluding special items.  We continue to be pleased with the performance of our markets under development, which represents approximately twenty percent of our network.  Dallas Love Field, in particular, continues to exceed our expectations, including the additional markets added in April 2015.  Considering recent weakness in close-in revenue passenger yields, an estimated two to three point impact from our year-over-year growth in stage length and seat gauge, and difficult comparisons to last year's strong second quarter performance, we currently estimate our second quarter 2015 PRASM will decline in the four to five percent range, compared with second quarter 2014.  We have taken steps this week to begin pulling down our second half 2015 ASMs to manage our 2015 capacity growth, year-over-year, to approximately seven percent.  With weaker than expected economic growth, we continue to evaluate our 2016 capacity plans with a current intent to cap our ASM growth to approximately six percent, year-over-year."

For the first five months of 2015, the Company flew 46.0 billion RPMs, compared with 42.7 billion RPMs flown for the same period in 2014, an increase of 7.7 percent.  Year-to-date ASMs increased 6.5 percent to a level of 56.3 billion, compared with the 52.9 billion for the same period in 2014.  The year-to-date load factor was 81.6 percent, compared with 80.7 percent for the same period in 2014.