Southwest Airlines quarterly profit slides 30% and says growth will slow next year

Southwest Airlines earned $193 million in the third quarter, 30% less than its profit a year ago. Southwest said Thursday that revenue was a record, however, as leisure travel boomed over the summer. The profit per share matched Wall Street expectations, while revenue was a bit less than analysts had predicted. The airline is planning for aggressive growth in the fourth quarter compared with the same period last year. It plans to cut that growth rate in half early next year.