Southwest Airlines, a year after introducing a new paint job and brand identity, on Thursday said it is rolling out a new ad campaign that focuses on its low-fare credo and its lack of bag fees, change fees or hidden fees for passengers.

The move comes a week before Southwest opens a new international concourse at Houston's William P. Hobby Airport and begins offering flights to six Latin American and Caribbean destinations from that city.

Dallas-based Southwest, the top hauler of domestic passengers and the No. 4 U.S. airline by traffic, said the new campaign is called "Transarency," and will appear on TV, in print and digitally. The initial 30-second TV spot was slated to air Thursday night during Texas Rangers baseball broadcasts. On Sunday, ads will run during NFL Football programming. Southwest said the ads will run nationally for 15 weeks and three additional ads will be released in the coming months.

Southwest's ad agency of record, Austin, Texas-based GSD&M created the campaign. It will include print and digital components as well as a microsite focused on the airline industry's competitive landscape. The microsite includes videos and quizzes, including a "Fee or Fake" quiz that gives "tips" to help travelers avoid other carriers' pervasive fees.

Southwest, which began serving international destinations after it acquired AirTran Airways in 2011, has since expanded that effort and is expected to serve a dozen Latin and Caribbean destinations from 12 U.S. cities by the end of this year. Houston hadn't been one of those cities, but now that a new $156 million international concourse is opening, Southwest will launch flights from there mostly to overseas destinations it already serves from other U.S. points. But a few new cities are planned in Costa Rica and Belize. Southwest also is planning an international terminal in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that will open in 2017.

The carrier separately said Thursday that its September traffic rose 11.4% compared with a year ago on an 8.4% increase in capacity. The percentage of seats filled was 82.7%, a record for the month, and up from 80.5% a year earlier. For the third quarter ended Sept. 30, Southwest said its traffic rose 8.9% on a 7.6% increase in capacity, also leading to a record load factor of 85.4%. The company said it continues to expect its third-quarter unit revenue—the amount taken in for each passenger flown a mile—to decline by 1% in the period compared with the prior-year period.

Write to Susan Carey at susan.carey@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 08, 2015 13:25 ET (17:25 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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