Southwest Axes 71% of Flights

December 27, 2022

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Southwest Axes 71% of Flights

It was a disastrous ending to Christmas weekend for airline passengers, with Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) canceling the majority of its flights on Monday.

Details: Southwest canceled 71% of its flights Monday, the day after it canceled 42% of its flights, according to FlightAware.com. The airline is already expected to cancel 61% of its flights today.

Challenges: Southwest blamed its crew scheduling process and holiday rush schedule that coincided with the lingering winter storm, according to NPR.

Big Picture: To put this in perspective on Monday, Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) canceled just 9% of its flights, United Airlines (Nasdaq: UAL) canceled 5%, and American Airlines (Nasdaq: AAL) canceled 0%. Among smaller carriers, Spirit Airlines (NYSE: SAVE) canceled 20% of its flights, Alaska Air (NYSE: ALK) canceled 16% and JetBlue Airways (Nasdaq: JBLU) canceled 6%.

Simultaneously: On Monday, the United States Department of Transportation said that it will “examine whether cancellations were controllable and if Southwest is complying with its customer service plan.”

Stock Price: Shares of Southwest are down over 17% this year, including a 6% drop in the last 30 days.

Final Thoughts: Southwest announced a few weeks ago that it was bringing back its dividend for the first time since the pandemic. This was great news for investors, but these ugly cancellations during the Christmas holiday are going to hurt.

Notables

Notable Earnings Today: GreenTree Hospitality Group (NYSE: GHG).

Notable IPOs Today: N/A.

Notable Equity Crowdfunding Campaigns Ending Today: Volcano Kimchi (SMBX), Hemptown Naturals (Title3Funds), Gamelevate (StartEngine).

Notable Economic Events Today: Goods Trade Balance (8:30 a.m. ET), Retail Inventories (8:30 a.m. ET), S&P/CS HPI Composite (9:00 a.m. ET).

Holiday Retail Sales Grew 7.6%

Photo by Mike Petrucci / Unsplash

U.S. retail sales jumped 7.6% during the holidays season, according to data released by Mastercard (NYSE: MA) SpendingPulse on Monday.

Numbers: Online sales grew 10.6%. Black Friday was the top spending day of the holiday season, followed closely by Saturdays in December.

Background: Mastercard attributed this increase to retailers discounting prices and shoppers diversifying their holiday spending to accommodate rising prices.

Final Thoughts: The survey is good news for retail stocks. Both online and brick-and-mortar retailers have seen their stocks drop in 2022.

Equity Crowdfunding Spotlight: CircleIt

Briefly describe your business. A healthy alternative to social media. Built for family legacy preservation & end-of-life services. With CircleIt you can chat, build your family tree and send cards to loved ones for free. CircleIt allows you to create and send cards to loved ones.

What are the terms of the investment for your campaign? We are raising $5M with a $52M cap. The first $500k investment will be in a SAFE at a $42M valuation cap. Previously raised $7.32M from VCs, Angel Investors & friends. See Wefunder for details.

What makes your startup special? We are a unique technology built to never be deleted. Our users will be members for life as CircleIt will continue to execute their wishes long after they are gone. We are not building social media, we're building something bigger.

Trends to Watch

It’s Happening: China to Open Borders as Covid-19 Cases Rise (The Wall Street Journal)

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