13D Filings
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO
LUV
Amendment
Ownership

9.30%

Total Shares

45,875,000

Issuer CIK

92380

CUSIP

844741108

Event Date

Feb 18, 2026

Accepted

Feb 23, 2026, 09:21 PM

Reporting Persons (1)
NameType% of ClassAggregateSole VotingShared Voting
Elliott Investment Management L.P.
Investment Adviser
9.30%45,875,00045,875,0000
Disclosure Items (5)

Security Title

Common Stock, par value $1.00 per share

Issuer Name

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO

Issuer Address

2702 LOVE FIELD DR, DALLAS, TX, 75235

The aggregate cost of the shares of Common Stock directly held by the Elliott Funds is approximately $922,369,820. The Reporting Person may effect purchases of the shares of Common Stock through margin accounts maintained for the Elliott Funds with prime brokers, which extend margin credit as and when required to open or carry positions in their margin accounts, subject to applicable federal margin regulations, stock exchange rules and such firms' credit policies. Positions in the shares of Common Stock may be held in margin accounts and may be pledged as collateral security for the repayment of debit balances in such accounts. Since other securities may be held in such margin accounts, it may not be possible to determine the amounts, if any, of margin used to purchase the shares of Common Stock.

The Reporting Person reduced the economic exposure of the Elliott Funds for portfolio management purposes. The Reporting Person intends for the Elliott Funds to remain significant shareholders of the Issuer based on its confidence that the Issuer's execution of ongoing strategic initiatives will translate to greater profitability, accretive capital-allocation opportunities and shareholder value creation.

Percentage of Class

See rows (11) and (13) of the cover page to this Schedule 13D for the aggregate number of shares of Common Stock and percentage of shares of Common Stock beneficially owned by the Reporting Person. The aggregate percentage of shares of Common Stock reported beneficially owned by the Reporting Person is based upon 491,317,990 shares of Common Stock outstanding as of February 3, 2026, as disclosed in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025, filed by the Issuer with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 5, 2026.

Number of Shares

See rows (7) through (10) of the cover page to this Schedule 13D for the shares of Common Stock as to which the Reporting Person has the sole or shared power to vote or direct the vote and sole or shared power to dispose or to direct the disposition.

Transactions

The transactions in the shares of Common Stock effected by the Reporting Person since the filing of Amendment No. 12, which were all in the open market, are set forth on Schedule 1 attached hereto and incorporated by reference herein.

Item 4 of the Schedule 13D is incorporated herein by reference. The Elliott Funds have entered into physically settled long call options relating to (i) 7,725,000 shares of Common Stock with a strike price of $60.00 and (ii) 3,475,000 shares of Common Stock with a strike price of $62.50 (collectively, the "Call Options"). The Call Options have an expiration date of June 18, 2026. Except as set forth herein, there are no contracts, arrangements, understandings or relationships (legal or otherwise) among the persons named in Item 2 hereof and between such persons and any person with respect to any securities of the Issuer, including any class of the Issuer's securities used as a reference security, in connection with any of the following: call options, put options, security-based swaps or any other derivative securities, transfer or voting of any of the securities, finder's fees, joint ventures, loan or option arrangements, guarantees of profits, division of profits or loss, or the giving or withholding of proxies.