FrequentFliers.com

DALLAS, Dec. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ – Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) and its wholly owned subsidiary AirTran Airways announced today the carriers received route authority approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for AirTran to operate international flights to new destinations in Mexico beginning as early as May 24, 2012. AirTran’s new international flights will include one daily roundtrip between Orange County, Calif., and Cabo San Lucas/San Jose del Cabo* and one daily roundtrip between Orange County and Mexico City.* AirTran also will initiate four weekly roundtrip flights between San Antonio and Cancun* as well as one daily roundtrip flight between San Antonio and Mexico City.*

“With the DOT’s approval, we are excited to now make these destinations available for sale to both AirTran and Southwest’s Customers,” said Bob Jordan, Southwest Airlines’ Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer and AirTran Airways President. “The new service is another direct benefit of Southwest’s acquisition of AirTran as we take low fares farther by expanding our route maps to more places Customers want to go.”

Examples of these one-way fares include (see Fare Rules below):

AirTran new service beginning May 24, 2012 (open for sale today):

• $119 one-way between San Antonio and Cancun
• $119 one-way between San Antonio and Mexico City

AirTran new service beginning June 3, 2012 (open for sale today):

• $119 one-way between Orange County and Cabo San Lucas/San Jose del Cabo
• $109 one-way between Orange County and Mexico City

To celebrate the new international service, AirTran launched a fare sale today with fares as low as $109 one-way between the new destinations.  Customers must book by Dec. 19, 2011, in order to take advantage of these low fares. Currently, all reservations for AirTran flights—including international destinations—must be booked on www.airtran.com, by calling AirTran reservations at (800) 247-8726, or through a travel agent. Southwest Customers can now see AirTran’s nonstop international routes on southwest.com through its new web referral tool which links Customers directly to www.airtran.com. When Customers select an international itinerary from a nonstop destination on Southwest’s site, they will then be directed to www.airtran.com where they can complete the booking process.  All flights booked on www.airtran.com will be subject to AirTran’s policies and procedures.

To support the new international flights out of Orange County’s John Wayne International Airport, a market AirTran does not currently serve, AirTran will add domestic service between San Francisco and Orange County with one daily roundtrip flight, and one daily roundtrip flight between Las Vegas and Orange County, beginning June 3, 2012.