Southwest Airlines turned a profit in the fourth quarter of 2021, its first since the start of the pandemic. The company reported net income of $68 million for the quarter. The quarter’s results were driven by “strong leisure demand during the holidays, business travel momentum and incremental revenue from our new co-brand credit card agreement with Chase,” said Southwest EVP and CFO Tammy Romo during the company’s Thursday fourth-quarter earnings call.
Full-year 2021 net income was $977 million, but excluding special items, the company reported a net loss of $1.3 billion. Quarterly passenger revenue was $4.6 billion versus $5.3 billion for the same period in 2019; full-year passenger revenue was $14 billion compared with $20.8 billion two…