letter from gary

Connecting the Southwest^® and AirTran^® Networks

May, 2013

Southwest Airlines^® acquired AirTran Airways in May 2011, and since then we’ve made tremendous progress in integrating AirTran—its airplanes, technology, systems, and, of course, Employees—into Southwest. As I’m sure you can imagine, this integration is a massive undertaking. When it is completed next year, we will be one airline—with one Brand, one livery, one Customer Experience, and one flight schedule. In the meantime, we continue to operate under our respective Brands.

I’m especially pleased to report to you that, just last month, we reached a major milestone as we fully combined Southwest’s and AirTran’s route networks. What does this mean for our Customers? In short: more itineraries, more destinations, and more low fares. Customers are now able to purchase a shared itinerary with a single transaction, on a single reservation, creating hundreds of new potential itineraries for our Customers and opening up our networks across both Brands. The ability to add an AirTran segment to a Southwest itinerary, or vice versa, opens up our combined 97 destinations across both Brands. And for the first time ever, a Southwest flight segment can be connected in a single itinerary to an international destination.

Now that the Southwest and AirTran route networks are connected, Customers may:

• Include one or more domestic AirTran flight segments on an itinerary booked using Southwest channels (southwest.com,^® 1-800-I-FLY-SWA, travel agencies, Southwest’s mobile site and apps, and Southwest ticket counters).
• Include one or more Southwest flight segment(s) on an AirTran itinerary booked using AirTran channels (airtran.com,^® 1-800-AIRTRAN, AirTran ticket counters, and travel agencies).
• Use all Southwest channels to book an AirTran-only domestic itinerary.
• Add an international AirTran segment to a Southwest itinerary within one reservation (through a Customer-friendly transfer of the transaction from Southwest to AirTran channels for booking, purchase, and ticketing).
• Earn currency in either loyalty program. The currency Customers earn is applied to the loyalty program of the carrier from which they buy their tickets.

Since we are currently one Company with two Brands, this is similar to, but not technically considered, an industry standard “codeshare” (an arrangement in which a Customer can book one ticket on two or more carriers). Eventually, this connectivity will seamlessly become one robust network under the Southwest Brand. In the meantime, we know our Customers will enjoy the best of both worlds.