Southwest Airlines Co. said on Friday that winter storms along the East Coast last month cost it $15 million in lost passenger revenue.

Southwest’s estimate came after two other airlines said earlier this week that the poor weather cost them about $55 million in lost revenue.

Continental Airlines Inc. estimated the storms cost it $25 million after it closed operations at its Newark, N.J., hub.

US Airways Group Inc. pegged its storm loss at $30 million. It was vulnerable because it has more flights along the East Coast than any other airline.

The storms caused airlines to cancel thousands of flights and to delay many others. Flight-tracking firm FlightStats.com tallied 7,400 canceled flights at the seven largest airports affected by the weather.

Southwest said its February traffic fell 2.3 percent to 4.99 billion revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger flown one mile, from 5.1 billion a year earlier. Capacity dropped 8.7 percent to 6.75 billion available seat miles versus 7.39 billion a year earlier.

With capacity dropping faster than traffic, planes were fuller. Southwest’s load factor — a measure of how full the planes are — rose 4.8 percentage points to 73.9 percent.

For the first two months of the year, Southwest said traffic rose 2.4 percent to 10.49 billion revenue passenger miles. Capacity fell 7.6 percent to 14.37 billion available seat miles. Load factor rose 7.1 percentage points to 72.9 percent.

Southwest shares slipped a penny to $12.59 in midday trading Friday.

Associated Press