Southwest says $15M lost to Feb. snow

Southwest Airlines Co. said today that it lost about $15 million in passenger revenue due in February to the heavy winter storms.

Philadelphia's second-busiest carrier said passenger traffic fell 2.3 percent last month, as severe weather caused numerous delays and cancellations, particularly on the East Coast.

Dallas-based Southwest said it flew 4.9 billion revenue passenger miles in February, compared with 5.1 billion in February 2009. A revenue passenger mile equals one passenger flown one mile and is a key measure of traffic for commercial carriers.

The airline's capacity - seats and flights - was down 8.7 percent, compared with a year earlier. Load factor, or percentage of seats filled, grew to 73.9 percent, up from 69.1 percent in the same month last year.    - Linda Loyd