Document And Entity Information (USD $)	3 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2011
Document And Entity Information [Abstract]
Entity Registrant Name	Southwest Airlines Co
Current Fiscal Year End Date	--12-31
Entity Central Index Key	0000092380
Entity Current Reporting Status	Yes
Entity Filer Category	Large Accelerated Filer
Entity Voluntary Filers	No
Entity Well-known Seasoned Issuer	Yes
Entity Common Stock, Shares Outstanding	778,522,395
Public Float	$ 9,119,884,998
Document Type	10-Q
Document Period End Date	Sep. 30, 2011
Amendment Flag	true
Amendment Description	Resubmit Interactive Data files for the sole purpose of correcting certain technical and formatting errors.
Document Fiscal Year Focus	2011
Document Fiscal Period Focus	Q3

Description of changes contained within amended document.

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End date of current fiscal year in the format --MM-DD.

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This is focus fiscal year of the document report in CCYY format. For a 2006 annual report, which may also provide financial information from prior periods, fiscal 2006 should be given as the fiscal year focus. Example: 2006.

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The end date of the period reflected on the cover page if a periodic report. For all other reports and registration statements containing historical data, it is the date up through which that historical data is presented. If there is no historical data in the report, use the filing date. The format of the date is CCYY-MM-DD.

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The type of document being provided (such as 10-K, 10-Q, N-1A, etc). The document type is limited to the same value as the supporting SEC submission type, minus any "/A" suffix. The acceptable values are as follows: S-1, S-3, S-4, S-11, F-1, F-3, F-4, F-9, F-10, 6-K, 8-K, 10, 10-K, 10-Q, 20-F, 40-F, N-1A, 485BPOS, 497, NCSR, N-CSR, N-CSRS, N-Q, 10-KT, 10-QT, 20-FT, and Other.

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A unique 10-digit SEC-issued value to identify entities that have filed disclosures with the SEC. It is commonly abbreviated as CIK.

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Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef

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Indicate "Yes" or "No" whether registrants (1) have filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that registrants were required to file such reports), and (2) have been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. This information should be based on the registrant's current or most recent filing containing the related disclosure.

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