Southwest Sees Record Profit for Q4 2017

Southwest Airlines announced financial results for the fourth quarter of 2017.

The airline reported record fourth quarter net income of $1.888 billion, a 261.7% increase over Q4 2016.

The airline also set a record for fourth-quarter operating revenue, reporting $5.3 billion, a year-over-year increase of 3.9%.

Southwest’s passenger revenue per available seat mile, or Prasm, increased 0.5%, up to 12.50 cents.

Passenger traffic in the fourth quarter increased by 2.6%, up to 32.19 billion revenue passenger miles, or RPMs, from 31.136 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016.  Meanwhile, capacity also increased, up 2% to 37.887 billion available seat miles, or ASMs, from 37.147 billion ASMs last year.

Passenger load factor in the fourth quarter increased 0.6 percentage points year-over-year, up to 85% from 84.4%

(Photo: Accura Media Group)