Southwest's Stock Falls As Traffic Fails To Keep Pace With Capacity

Shares of Southwest Airlines dropped 1.5% in premarket trade, after the air carrier said capacity increased more than traffic in January, leading to a decline in a key industry metric. The load factor for the month fell to 75.1% from 76.3%, as traffic rose 8.6% to 8.05 billion revenue passenger miles while capacity increased 10.2% to 10.71 available seat miles. Passenger revenue for available seat mile declined 1%. The stock has climbed 15% over the past three months through Friday, compared with gains of 9.4% in the NYSE Arca Airline index and 1.2% in the S&P 500.

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