Yesterday, Southwest Airlines (LUV) announced its preliminary mainline traffic results for September. The company reported an 8.8% surge in traffic to 5.8 billion revenue passenger miles from 5.3 billion revenue passenger miles a year ago.

Load factor, or the percentage of available seats filled with passengers, in September rose to 74.7% from 63.4% in the prior-year period. Available seat miles, or capacity, fell 7.8% to 7.7 billion from 8.4 billion in the year-ago period. The airline plans to reduce 2009 available seat miles in the 5–6% range versus last year.

Year-to-date revenue passenger miles rose 0.1% to 56.3 billion, while available seat miles fell 4.3% to 74.5 billion and load factor rose 330 basis points to 75.6%.

September’s traffic gain was the third consecutive increase for Southwest, putting traffic up nearly 5% for the third quarter.

Amid weak demand for business travel, Southwest continues to stimulate traffic with more discounted and promotional fares. Unless demand rebounds significantly, third quarter 2009 unit revenue is expected to decline year-over-year more than the second quarter decline of 6%.

Based on weak travel demand and fuel price volatility, management doesn’t expect very profitable third quarter results.

On August 14, Southwest lost its bid to acquire Frontier Airlines Holdings (FRNT) to Republic Airways Holdings (RJET).

Peer Continental Airlines (CAL) reported last week that its total traffic jumped 7% to $6.9 billion in September. This was its first increase in traffic in more than a year with capacity rising modestly. Early during the week, United Airlines (UAUA) said its traffic in September fell by 1.1%, weighed by a decline in North American travel.

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