TRAVEL
Airline industry
Southwest Airlines ekes out Q3 profit
Joshua Freed, AP Airlines Writer
![Passengers wait to board a Southwest Airlines flight at Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York on Oct. 7, 2010.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.usatoday.com/gcdn/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2012/10/18/oct2010-059-16_9.jpg?width=660&height=373&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
Southwest Airlines is reporting a small third-quarter profit, but says weak demand in September caused a key measure of revenue to grow slower than expected.
Southwest says it's "encouraged" by booking and revenue trends so far this month.
Southwest earned $16 million for the quarter that ended Sept. 30, or 2 cents per share. Not counting special items, Southwest would have earned $97 million, or 13 cents per share. That's a penny per share more than expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet.
During the same period last year it lost $140 million, or 18 cents per share.
Revenue was the same as a year ago, at $4.31billion. That was a little lower than analysts had expected.
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