New Accounting Pronouncements (Policies) |
6 Months Ended |
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Jun. 30, 2026 | |
| Accounting Standards Update and Change in Accounting Principle [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 as required in Form 10-K. The unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements for the interim periods ended June 30, 2026 and 2025 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 most markets the Company serves, demand for air travel has historically been greater, and, therefore, revenues in the airline industry tend to be stronger, during the summer months and peak travel periods, including holidays. As a result, in many cases, the Company's results of operations reflect this seasonality. 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 or actual acts 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 six months ended June 30, 2026, are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for future quarters or for the year ended December 31, 2026. 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, 2025.
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| Breakage Revenue / Revenue | Breakage Revenue During second quarter 2026, in association with its former policy in which flight credits (funds that may be applied towards future travel) did not expire, the Company determined that a reversal of a portion of previously recognized, prior years' breakage revenue was warranted. Following the Company's prior policy decision in July 2022 to eliminate the expiration date on flight credits issued, approximately $7.9 billion in non-expiring flight credits were issued by the Company between July 2022 and December 2025, and the Company had previously estimated, based on both historical and projected redemption behavior at that time, approximately 23 percent of those non-expiring flight credits would not be redeemed by Customers, and correspondingly recorded estimated breakage revenue for those amounts over the time period July 2022 through December 2025. Based on the most recent flight credit redemption trends and updated projections of future redemptions for the remaining available non-expiring flight credits, the Company now believes that approximately 20 percent of the non-expiring flight credits originally issued between July 2022 and December 2025 will not be redeemed by Customers. Approximately $1.8 billion of such flight credits remain available as of June 30, 2026. As a result of this change in estimate, the Company is recording a second quarter 2026 reversal of breakage revenue of $285 million. No breakage revenue related to this population of non-expiring flight credits was recognized in first half 2026; thus, the entire amount of the second quarter 2026 breakage revenue reversal relates to years 2022 through 2025. The timing of this adjustment in the second quarter 2026 was impacted by a combination of quantitative trends and qualitative factors affecting Customer behavior, including the Company's recent significant business transformation initiatives, changes to fare products and distribution channels, and changes to its flight credit policies. These factors altered historical Customer redemption patterns and reduced the predictive value of historical information observed during the period in which the credits were issued. As a result, management determined that Customer behavior observed through the second quarter of 2026 provided a more reliable basis for estimating the ultimate level of unredeemed flight credits than had previously been determined. The Company implemented a change to its flight credit policy, in which flight credits created from reservations booked and ticketed or voluntarily changed on or after May 28, 2025, will typically have a specified expiration date of one year or less, depending on the type of fare purchased and form of payment used. However, some non-expiring flight credits continued to be issued subsequent to May 28, 2025, primarily due to reservations for future travel that were already in place as of that date that were subsequently modified or cancelledBreakage estimates are based on Customers' historical travel behavior as well as assumptions about their future travel behavior. Assumptions about the Customers' future travel behavior can be impacted by several factors including but not limited to: fare increases; fare sales; changes to the Company's ticketing policies; changes to the Company’s refund, exchange, and unused flight credit policies; seat availability; economic factors; and the Company's observations about changes in actual Customer use of flight credits.The Company’s contracts with its Customers primarily consist of ticket sales, which are initially deferred as Air traffic liability. Passenger revenue associated with tickets is recognized when the performance obligation to the Customer is satisfied, which is primarily when travel is provided. For air travel on Southwest, the amount of tickets (which includes flight credits—also referred to as partial tickets) that will go unused, referred to as breakage, is estimated and recognized in Passenger revenue once the scheduled flight date has passed, in proportion to the pattern of rights exercised by the Customer. Revenue is categorized by revenue source as the Company believes this best depicts the nature, amount, timing, and uncertainty of revenue and cash flow.On May 28, 2025, the Company implemented a change to its flight credit policy. Flight credits created from reservations booked and ticketed or voluntarily changed on or after May 28, 2025, will typically have a specified expiration date of one year or less, depending on the type of fare purchased and form of payment used. Flight credits issued between July 28, 2022, and May 28, 2025, including any future issuances associated with bookings made prior to the policy change on May 28, 2025, do not have an expiration date. However, some non-expiring flight credits continued to be issued subsequent to May 28, 2025, primarily due to reservations for future travel that were already in place as of that date that were subsequently modified or cancelled. During second quarter 2026, in association with its former policy in which flight credits did not expire, the Company determined that a reversal of a portion of previously recognized breakage revenue was warranted. Approximately $7.9 billion in non-expiring flight credits were issued by the Company between July 2022 and December 2025. The Company had estimated a portion of those non-expiring flight credits would not be redeemed by Customers, and correspondingly recorded estimated breakage for those amounts over those periods. Due to higher-than-projected Customer redemptions of these non-expiring flight credits, along with updated projections of future redemptions, the Company has revised its estimates with regard to the remaining non-expiring flight credits that remain available for redemption. The Company determined that a reversal of a portion of previously recognized breakage revenue of $285 million was warranted and recorded this adjustment during the three months ended June 30, 2026. This change in breakage revenue, and the corresponding impact to Passenger revenue, is considered a change in estimate (see Note 1 for further clarification). The Company issues vacation travel credits for cancelled bookings resulting from the Getaways by Southwest™ ("Getaways") product, and these credits have an 18-month expiration period from the original booking date. As the Company believes that a portion of Customer travel credits (both flight credits and Getaways travel credits) issued will not be redeemed, it estimates and records breakage associated with such amounts. The amount of Customer travel credits represents approximately 6 percent and 5 percent of the total Air traffic liability balance as of June 30, 2026, and December 31, 2025, respectively.
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| Operating Segments and Related Disclosures | 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,
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| New Accounting Pronouncements | On May 19, 2026, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2026‑02, Environmental Credits and Environmental Credit Obligations (Topic 818), which establishes a new accounting model for environmental credits and related obligations. ASU 2026-02 provides guidance on the recognition, measurement, presentation, and disclosure of environmental credits, as well as obligations that may be settled using such credits. Under ASU 2026-02, environmental credits are recognized as assets when it is probable they will be used to satisfy a compliance obligation, transferred, or otherwise utilized in a qualifying manner. The accounting for these credits, including subsequent measurement, depends on whether they are expected to be used for compliance or noncompliance purposes. ASU 2026-02 also requires entities to recognize environmental credit obligations as activities occur that give rise to a regulatory requirement and introduces a measurement approach that is generally linked to the cost basis of credits expected to be used to settle such obligations. This standard is effective for public business entities for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2027, including interim periods within those annual periods, with early adoption permitted. The Company is evaluating this new standard, but does not expect it to have a significant impact on its financial statement presentation or results. On September 18, 2025, the FASB issued ASU 2025-06, Accounting for and Disclosure of Software Costs. The new standard modernizes the guidance to reflect the software development approaches currently being used by removing all references to "development stages" from Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") 350-40 Intangibles—Goodwill and Other - Internal-Use Software. Under ASU 2025-06, only the following criteria in ASC 350-40-25-12(b) and (c) must be met for entities to begin capitalizing software costs: (i) management, with the relevant authority, implicitly or explicitly authorizes and commits to funding a computer software project and (ii) it is probable that the project will be completed and the software will be used to perform the function intended (referred to as the "probable-to-complete recognition threshold"). This standard is effective for all entities for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2027, and interim reporting periods within those annual reporting periods, with early adoption permitted. Entities may apply the guidance prospectively, retrospectively, or via a modified prospective transition method. The Company is evaluating this new standard, but does not expect it to have a significant impact on its financial statement presentation or results. On July 30, 2025, the FASB issued ASU 2025-05, Financial Instruments - Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses for Accounts Receivable and Contract Assets. This standard includes the option for entities to elect a practical expedient that assumes current conditions as of the balance sheet date do not change for the remaining life of the asset as a part of estimating expected credit losses. The Company has elected this practical expedient as of first quarter 2026, and there was no significant impact on its financial statement presentation or disclosures. On November 4, 2024, the FASB issued ASU 2024-03, Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income - Expense Disaggregation Disclosures (Subtopic 220-40): Disaggregation of Income Statement Expenses. This standard responds to investor input by requiring public companies to disclose, in interim and annual reporting periods, additional information about certain expenses in the notes to the financial statements. This standard does not change the presentation of expense information or expense captions reported on the face of the income statement. This standard is effective for all entities that are subject to Subtopic 220-40, for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2026, and interim periods within annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2027, but early adoption is permitted. The Company is evaluating this new standard, but does not expect it to have a significant impact on its financial statement presentation or results.
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| Fair Value Measurements | Accounting standards pertaining to fair value measurements establish a three-tier fair value hierarchy, which prioritizes the inputs used in measuring fair value. These tiers include: Level 1, defined as observable inputs such as quoted prices in active markets; Level 2, defined as inputs other than quoted prices in active markets that are either directly or indirectly observable; and Level 3, defined as unobservable inputs in which little or no market data exists, therefore requiring an entity to develop its own assumptions. As of June 30, 2026, the Company held certain items that are required to be measured at fair value on a recurring basis, including cash equivalents. The Company may also from time to time hold short-term investments and available-for-sale securities. The majority of the Company’s cash equivalents consist of instruments classified as Level 1. However, the Company classifies any certificates of deposit and time deposits it holds as Level 2 due to the fact that the fair value for these instruments is determined utilizing observable inputs in non-active markets. Equity securities primarily consist of investments with readily determinable market values associated with the Company’s excess benefit plan. The Company’s interest rate derivative instruments consist of over-the-counter contracts, which are not traded on a public exchange. Interest rate derivatives currently consist solely of swap agreements. See Note 3 for further information on the Company’s derivative instruments and hedging activities. The fair values of swap contracts are determined based on inputs that are readily available in public markets or can be derived from information available in publicly quoted markets. Therefore, the Company has categorized these swap contracts as Level 2. The Company also considered counterparty credit risk and its own credit risk in its determination of all estimated fair values. The Company consistently applied these valuation techniques in all periods presented and believes it obtained the most accurate information available for the types of derivative contracts it holds. Included in Equity securities are the Company’s investments primarily associated with its deferred compensation plans, which consist of mutual funds that are publicly traded and for which market prices are readily available. These plans are non-qualified deferred compensation plans designed to hold contributions in excess of limits established by the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. The distribution timing and payment amounts under these plans are made based on the participant’s distribution election and plan balance. Assets related to the funded portions of the deferred compensation plans are held in a rabbi trust, and the Company remains liable to these participants for the unfunded portion of the plans. The Company records changes in the fair value of plan obligations and plan assets, which net to zero, within the Salaries, wages, and benefits line and Other (gains) losses, net line, respectively, of the unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income.
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