Southwest Shares Grounded After Flight Delays

By
Terry Lane
Terry Lane
Full Bio
Terry has 25 years experience in journalism and communications, reporting on a range of topics that include personal finance, telecommunications, Congress, government regulations, and criminal justice. He has also worked on technology, energy, and environmental policy issues as a congressional press secretary and owned and published a local community newspaper in North Carolina.
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Published April 18, 2023
Southwest aircraft at airport gates

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Key Takeaways

  • Shares of Southwest (LUV) lost altitude on April 18, 2023, as a technical problem caused flight delays.
  • The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) temporarily paused Southwest's departures on Tuesday morning in response to a data connection issue.
  • The airline is only a few months removed from the chaos it experienced over the holiday season of 2022.

Southwest Airlines (LUV) halted flights briefly in the morning due to a technical issue, which resulted in flight delays across the U.S.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) paused the airline's departures while it worked through a data connection issue, where a vendor-provided firewall failed and Southwest staff lost connection to operational data. Flights takeoffs were delayed for about an hour, the company said.

The delay is another mishap for Southwest after winter storms in December 2022 cost the air carrier potentially as much as $825 million in lost revenue and refunds to customers.

Southwest shares slid 0.8% on the news and are about 13% off their yearly high of $37.06 in January.

Southwest is scheduled to deliver its earnings on April 27.

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