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Basis of Presentation | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2025
Accounting Policies [Abstract] |
BASIS OF PRESENTATION | 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 as required in Form 10-K. The unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements for the interim periods ended September 30, 2025 and 2024 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. For example, absent other factors, travel demand is generally higher during the summer period, or the Company’s second and third fiscal quarters. However, 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, 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, have created, and may continue to create, significant volatility in the Company's financial results. Operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2025, are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for future quarters or for the year ended December 31, 2025. 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, 2024. On July 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, was signed into law. The legislation did not have a material impact on the Company's income tax expense for the quarter ending September 30, 2025, nor is it expected to materially change the Company's effective income tax rate for 2025. During third quarter 2025, the Company completed an annual review of the estimated residual values of its long-lived assets. As a result of this review, the Company increased the estimated residual values for its Boeing 737-700 ("-700") airframe and -700, Boeing 737-800 ("-800"), and Boeing 737-8 ("-8") engine assets. This change took into consideration third party valuation data and recent market transactions. As this is considered a change in estimate, it has been accounted for on a prospective basis in accordance with Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") 205, "Accounting Changes and Error Corrections" and thus the Company will record less depreciation expense over the remainder of the useful lives for each related asset. The effect of this change in estimate was an immaterial change to depreciation expense for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2025. Operating Segments and Related Disclosures The Company's chief operating decision maker, the Company's President, Chief Executive Officer, & Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, assesses performance for the Company's single reportable segment and decides how to allocate resources based on its Net income or loss (see the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income). For single reportable segment-level financial information, total assets, revenues from external customers, depreciation and amortization expense, interest income and interest expense, provision for income taxes, other non-operating expenses, and significant non-cash transactions, see Item 1. Financial Statements.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for the basis of accounting, or basis of presentation, used to prepare the financial statements (for example, US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, Other Comprehensive Basis of Accounting, IFRS). + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2009/role/commonPracticeRef -Topic 235 -SubTopic 10 -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Section 50 -Paragraph 4 -Subparagraph (a) -Publisher FASB -URI https://asc.fasb.org/1943274/2147483426/235-10-50-4 + Details
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