Southwest Airlines to increase dividend and share repurchase authorisation 

Southwest Airlines to increase dividend and share repurchase authorisation

May 17, 2012 (Menafn - AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION via COMTEX) --Southwest Airlines LUV on Wednesday announced that its board of directors, at its meeting held on 16 May 2012, declared an increase in the quarterly dividend and an increase of the company's share repurchase authorisation to USD1bn.

The increase in the quarterly dividend is scheduled to begin with the 143rd dividend which was declared on 16 May 2012 to shareholders of record at the close of business on 6 June 2012 on all shares then issued and outstanding to be paid on 20 June 2012.

Repurchases are scheduled to be made in accordance with applicable securities laws from time to time in open market or private transactions, depending on market conditions, and may be discontinued at any time, the carrier added.

In August 2011 the board of directors authorised the repurchase of up to USD500m of the carrier's common stock. Through 15 May 2012, the company repurchased approximately 39 million shares for a total of USD325m as part of the programme.

The Board's decision to increase the share repurchase authorisation to USD1bn is said, to be to allow the company to repurchase an additional USD675m of common stock.

Since January 2006, the company has repurchased around 159 million shares for a total of USD2.2bn. Currently Southwest has approximately 768 million shares of common stock outstanding.

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