• by Karl Greenberg , June 8, 2009

The campaign features Sr. Destino ("Mr. Destination"), a fictive "ultimate travel companion," who helps the traveler make important business deals, vacations, meetings and the like.

The effort, which launched last week, is running on Univision, Telemundo, Azteca, Galavision, CNN Español, ESPN Sports, national Hispanic radio stations and Internet portals like Univision.com.

A spokesperson for the Dallas-based airline says the two ads -- one for business-class customers and the other for leisure travelers -- are in Spanish, with a bilingual landing page on the Web site.

The effort is via Dallas-based Dieste, the airline's Hispanic AOR for over a decade. The spokesperson says Southwest typically does three Hispanic-market campaigns per year.

The Hispanic campaign runs in tandem with a new general market push designed to get consumers to get back to flying although the economy is under the clouds. The campaign uses the tagline "Grab Your Bag. It's On."

Ads feature Southwest Airlines President and CEO Gary Kelly, as well as employees and customers. The effort -- which also has print, radio, online, and in-airport components -- is set to run through August. The ads show a series of 30-something people saying "It's on" as they go about their lives. Voiceover: "We don't fly around tough times -- how about you?"

The airline, which serves 65 cities in 33 states, reported that it posted 6.4 billion revenue passenger miles in May 2009 -- a 3.6% decrease from the 6.7 billion miles flown in May 2008. The company said passenger revenue decreased in the 9% range versus May 2008.

It has been a harsh year so far for domestic air travel, with passenger numbers plummeting in March, airlines cutting flights, and the flu epidemic taking cuts out of U.S. to Mexico flights. But Southwest beat expectations.

In April, when U.S. carriers were cutting flights and United Airlines reported a 10.5% decline in traffic, Southwest Airlines posted a 4.1% improvement in traffic.