Aug. 16, 2007

Southwest Airlines announces the continuation of a partnership with Siena College to encourage student athletes to achieve academic success through an incentive based program. The Siena athletic department will receive one round trip ticket for every member of its men's and women's MAAC Champion golf teams who earns a GPA of 3.2 GPA or higher courtesy of Southwest Airlines to be used for team travel. The partnership reflects Southwest's dedication to education and its community involvement in Albany.

"Southwest Airlines is honored to partner with Siena and the Athletic Department to reward students for outstanding academic achievement," said Craig Keish, Marketing Manager for Southwest Airlines.

The partnership between Southwest and Siena began in 2006. For the 2006-2007 school year, 10 students earned round trip tickets, which allowed the teams to compete in national tournaments around the country. Currently, Southwest Airlines offers daily nonstop departures from Albany to five cities, and additional direct or connecting service to 44 cities.

"The partnership with Southwest Airlines motivates our student-athletes to succeed at the highest possible level both on and off the field. Southwest's generosity and commitment to higher education helped our golf teams win MAAC Championships this spring, while our student-athletes posted the third highest Graduation Success Rate in the country," said John D'Argenio, Siena College Director of Athletics.

After 36 years of service, Southwest Airlines continues to offer the best value in airline travel, allowing Customers the opportunity to travel nonstop throughout the country at a very low fare. Southwest offers a very comfortable ride with all premium leather seats and plenty of legroom. Southwest does not charge Customers an extra fee for changing their reservation and continues to offer free amenities. Customers enjoy complimentary pillows, blankets, snacks, juice, soda, and water on all flights. Since 1987, the airline has maintained the fewest overall Customer complaints as published in the Department of Transportation's Air Travel Consumer Report. Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV), the nation's largest carrier in terms of domestic passengers enplaned, currently serves 63 cities in 32 states. Based in Dallas, Southwest currently operates more than 3,300 flights a day and has more than 33,000 Employees systemwide.