Southwest Airlines (LUV) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results and Next Report Date

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Southwest Airlines published the results on October 21, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. Southwest Airlines reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and excluding special items, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• Passenger revenue lines (non-loyalty, loyalty air transportation, ancillary sold separately) come from the revenue note in Southwest's Form 10-Q; the release reports Passenger, Freight and Other.
• Q2 2026 reported revenue was reduced by a $285 million breakage revenue adjustment on non-expiring flight credits, which Southwest treats as a special item.

Source: Southwest Airlines Q3 2026 results, October 21, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Southwest Airlines splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Southwest Airlines's Passenger revenue was $7.8 billion in Q3 2026, up 23% from $6.3 billion in Q3 2025, 92% of total revenue.
• Southwest Airlines's Freight revenue was $48.0 million in Q3 2026, up 14% from $42.0 million in Q3 2025, under 1% of total revenue.
• Southwest Airlines's Other revenue was $621 million in Q3 2026, up 5% from $594 million in Q3 2025, 7% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

Southwest also gives a table in the release: fourth quarter 2026 adjusted EPS of $0.55 to $0.80 and full-year 2026 adjusted EPS of $2.60 to $2.85.

In its Q3 2026 release, Southwest Airlines said:

“The Company's guidance is based on the forward fuel curve as of October 15, 2026 and assumes the current fare environment and demand trends remain broadly intact.”

“Fourth quarter 2026 RASM is expected to increase between 19% and 21% year-over-year”

“Fourth quarter 2026 fuel cost per gallon is assumed to be approximately $4.55”

“Entered 2026 with a disciplined capacity plan and now expect full-year growth of approximately 1.2%, versus last updated guidance of approximately 1.5%”

Source: Southwest Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Oct 21, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the LUV forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP total operating revenues and diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's release.

Southwest Airlines's next report is scheduled for January 27, 2027. This page will show Q3 2026 until those results are out and have been checked against the release.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Oct 21, 2026

Southwest Airlines' total operating revenues were $8,422 million in Q3 2026, up 21.2% from $6,949 million, a third quarter record for the airline. Passenger revenue was $7,754 million of that, freight $48 million and other revenues $621 million, of which $563 million came from the loyalty program. (Southwest Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026; Southwest Airlines Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 22, 2026)

Inside passenger revenue, ancillary products sold separately rose to $898 million from $612 million. Southwest attributes the increase to bag fees for most fare products beginning May 28, 2025, and to assigned and extra legroom seating for travel beginning January 27, 2026, including the co-brand impact of those initiatives. Passenger loyalty revenue for air transportation fell to $734 million from $805 million. (Southwest Airlines Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 22, 2026)

Southwest grew revenue on slightly less flying. Capacity (available seat miles) was 45,393 million, down 0.4%, and revenue passengers carried fell 3.2% to 33,467 thousand. Average passenger fare rose 26.9% to $231.69, and passenger yield per revenue passenger mile rose 23.3% to 21.41 cents, which the 10-Q puts down to broad demand strength and customer engagement with the enhanced product, including ancillary revenues. (Southwest Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026; Southwest Airlines Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 22, 2026)

Other revenue is mostly tied to Southwest's co-branded credit card agreement with JPMorgan Chase, through which it sells loyalty points, marketing benefits such as access to Rapid Rewards Member lists, and other airline benefits. Southwest and Chase amended the agreement in 2025 to add Cardmember benefits linked to the assigned and extra legroom seating initiative. (Southwest Airlines Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 22, 2026)

Southwest flies a mostly point-to-point network. At December 31, 2025 it had 803 Boeing 737 aircraft and served 117 destinations in 42 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and ten near-international countries. It ended Q3 2026 with 803 aircraft after receiving 20 Boeing 737-8s and retiring 20 aircraft. (Southwest Airlines Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 5, 2026; Southwest Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

Southwest Airlines' GAAP diluted EPS was $0.55 in Q3 2026, against $0.10 a year earlier, on net income of $270 million. Adjusted EPS, excluding special items, was $0.66. The special items were $30 million of impairment of long-lived assets, $30 million of severance and related costs and $13 million of litigation accruals, less a $16 million net tax impact. (Southwest Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

Higher fuel prices held earnings back. Fuel cost $3.92 per gallon against $2.40 a year earlier, fuel expense rose $821 million, and Southwest said that was a $1.08 headwind to adjusted EPS. The quarter also included a $214 million gain on sale, of which $118 million came from sale-leaseback transactions. (Southwest Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

Buybacks cut the share count. Diluted weighted average shares were 494 million against 526 million a year earlier. Southwest spent $1.25 billion repurchasing stock in the first nine months of 2026, $450 million remains under its $2.0 billion authorization, and it paid $176 million in dividends in the quarter. The effective tax rate was 24.0 percent against 21.0 percent. (Southwest Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026; Southwest Airlines Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 22, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

Southwest Airlines publishes guidance in its release, based on the forward fuel curve. For Q4 2026 it guided adjusted EPS of $0.55 to $0.80, capacity up 3% to 4%, RASM up 19% to 21% and CASM-X up 4.0% to 4.5%, with fuel assumed at about $4.55 per gallon. For full-year 2026 it guided adjusted EPS of $2.60 to $2.85 and capacity growth of about 1.2%, down from about 1.5%. (Southwest Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

Southwest said it will give a multi-year financial framework at a Capital Markets Day in New York City on March 2, 2027. It expects 67 Boeing 737-8 and 737-7 deliveries and about 60 retirements in 2026, and net capital spending of $2.5 billion to $2.75 billion. (Southwest Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Southwest Airlines, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Southwest Airlines's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning LUV is on is LUV a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the LUV forecast, and what the company does is on the Southwest Airlines (LUV) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Southwest Airlines published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.