First we note that Total Assets grew 8.1% from 2014 to 2015. Current assets of $4 billion are significantly less than Current Liabilities of $7.4 billion in 2015. In a manufacturing company this would indicate a weakness, but at Southwest most customers pay in advance for air fare so accounts receivable are low at $0.5 billion. Inventories of Parts and Supplies, at cost are also low at $0.3 billion. I would have to look in the footnotes to find out that Southwest does not keep a big supply of jet fuel; it buys fuel as is uses fuel. Flight equipment of $19.5 billion makes up the majority of the $24.7 billion property and equipment at cost. Depreciation of $9.1 billion suggests that the majority of the life of the airplanes and other property is still to come. Under current liabilities, we see that Air Traffic Liability was $3.0 billion. This is the amount of money customers paid to Southwest for tickets before flying. At Dec 31, 2015, this says that total tickets bought for 2016 was $3 billion. Total shareholders’ equity grew 8.6%.
