Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) has always been extremely proud of its string of profitable quarters, which began in the spring of 1991, and traversed a major recession and the massive drop-off in air travel that followed the 2001 terrorist attacks. But when the much-admired carrier bet that oil prices would continue their record climb – and they plummeted instead – the Dallas-based Southwest was forced to report its first quarterly loss in 17 years. Southwest today (Thursday) reported a net loss of $120 million, or 16 cents per share, for the third quarter, down from a net gain of $162 million, or 22 cents per share, for the same period the year prior. Despite the loss, the airline’s shares were up 48 cents each, or 4.15%, to trade at $12.04 at 11:54 a.m. in New York – even though the Dow Jones ...