BASIS OF PRESENTATION

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2021

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

BASIS OF PRESENTATION

Southwest Airlines Co. (the "Company" or "Southwest") operates Southwest Airlines, a major passenger airline that provides scheduled air transportation in the United States and near-international markets. The unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements include accounts of the Company and its wholly owned subsidiaries.

The accompanying unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements of the Company and its subsidiaries 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 generally accepted accounting principles in the United States ("GAAP") for complete financial statements. The unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements for the interim periods ended September 30, 2021 and 2020 include 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. 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. However, beginning in early 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company's results have not always been in line with such historical trends. See Note 2 for further information. Air travel is also significantly impacted by general economic conditions, the amount of disposable income available to consumers and changes in consumer behavior, unemployment levels, corporate travel budgets, global pandemics such as COVID-19, extreme or severe weather and natural disasters, fears of terrorism or war, governmental actions, and other factors beyond the Company's control. These and other factors, such as the price of jet fuel in some periods, the nature of the Company's fuel hedging program, and the periodic volatility of commodities used by the Company for hedging jet fuel, have created, and may continue to create, significant volatility in the Company's financial results. See Note 4 for further information on fuel and the Company's hedging program. Operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021, are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for future quarters or for the year ended December 31, 2021. For further information, refer to the Consolidated Financial Statements and footnotes thereto included in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020.

In the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income (Loss), for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, Payroll support and voluntary Employee programs, net, includes the correction of previously under accrued payroll tax credits, related to fourth quarter 2020, of $88 million, pre-tax. Other gains and losses, net, includes gains of $60 million, pre-tax, to correct investment gains related to prior periods previously recorded in Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) ("AOCI").

In the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statement of Stockholders' Equity, for the nine months ended September 30, 2021, the Company recorded a decrease of $19 million, net of tax, in AOCI and a corresponding increase in Retained earnings to correct the amount of the impact of the cumulative effect of adopting Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") 2016-01, Financial Instruments in 2018.

These corrections are not considered material to prior period financial statements and are not expected to be material to the full year 2021 financial statements.