Southwest Airlines Continues to Grow Its Maintenance Facilities and Enhances Its Commitment to the Carrier's Hometown of Dallas

DALLAS, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Southwest Airlines continues its ongoing commitment to growth in Dallas today by announcing the grand opening of a new, state-of-the-art maintenance hangar. Construction on the hangar began in November 2006. The 80,000 square-foot hangar accommodates up to three Boeing 737-700 Next Generation series aircraft with winglets concurrently, which will compress the amount of time the airline's aircraft are out of revenue service.

"Our Employees did a fantastic job designing the new hangar with strong considerations directed toward improved working conditions and work flow," said Jim Sokol, Southwest's Vice President Maintenance and Engineering. "By expanding our Dallas maintenance operation, we continue to show our commitment and growth at Dallas Love Field."

The new hangar provides additional capacity needs to accommodate maintenance visits with the Company's Next Generation fleet. Including this newest addition, the Dallas maintenance base has a total of five hangars. Southwest currently operates a fleet of 298 Next Generation aircraft and has a total fleet of more than 500 Boeing 737s.

"With the additional hangar capacity, we have greater flexibility with heavy maintenance requirements in Dallas," Sokol said. "Our Company's core mission is safety and the new hangar provides the space needed to uphold our exceptional safety standards."

Since 1980, Southwest has invested millions in the city of Dallas. With approximately $14.3 million in 2006 property taxes (5th biggest taxpayer in all of Dallas), almost 6,000 Dallas-based Employees, the new Maintenance project at an estimated $18.5 million, and the $211.4 million total investment in new construction at Love Field (including concourse facelifts and additions to the Headquarters facility), Southwest continues its healthy contributions to the city.

Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), the nation's largest carrier in terms of domestic passengers enplaned, currently serves 64 cities in 32 states. Based in Dallas, Southwest currently operates more than 3,400 flights a day and has more than 33,000 Employees systemwide. Southwest Airlines operates four maintenance bases in select Southwest cities.

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