Shares of Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV) are down today after the firm asked the FAA to temporarily halt its departures due to intermittent technology issues. Despite hoping for a quick resolution, FlightAware data showed that thousands of flights were delayed by mid-morning, making up more than one-third of scheduled departures.
However, the FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center later reported that the full stop was canceled after about 16 minutes. The data connection issues were caused by a firewall failure which the airline was able to quickly resolve. As a result, the company is up and running again.
Despite Southwest’s recent string of troubles, which include the cancellations seen during Christmas, Wall Street analysts are still optimistic about LUV stock with a consensus price target of $42.58, which implies over 33% upside potential, as indicated by the graphic above.