BASIS OF PRESENTATION

3 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Notes to Financial Statements [Abstract]

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

1.       BASIS OF PRESENTATION

The accompanying unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements of Southwest Airlines Co. and its subsidiaries (the “Company” or “Southwest”) have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by accounting principles generally accepted in the United States for complete financial statements. The unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements for the interim periods ended September 30, 2011 and 2010include all adjustments which are, in the opinion of management, necessary for a fair presentation of the results for the interim periods. This includes all normal and recurring adjustments and elimination of significant intercompany transactions, but does not include all of the information and footnotes required by generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) for complete financial statements. Financial results for the Company and airlines in general can be seasonal in nature. In many years, the Company's revenues, as well as its operating income and net income, have been better in its second and third fiscal quarters than in its first and fourth fiscal quarters. Air travel is also significantly impacted by general economic conditions, the amount of disposable income available to consumers, unemployment levels, and corporate travel budgets. These and other factors, such as the price of jet fuel in some periods, the nature of the Company's fuel hedging program, the periodic volatility of commodities used by the Company for hedging jet fuel, and the requirements related to hedge accounting, have created, and may continue to create, significant volatility in the Company's financial results. See Note 5 for further information on fuel and the Company's hedging program. Operating results for the three and ninemonths endedSeptember 30,2011are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ended December 31, 2011. For further information, refer to the Consolidated Financial Statements and footnotes thereto included in the Southwest Airlines Co. Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010.