Southwestern stocks collapse as analyst says canceled flights could increase cost pressures and hurt labor relations

Shares of Southwest Airlines Co. LUV,
-1.76%
fell 2.9% in pre-market trade on Monday, to accelerate declines among its airline peers, after Southwest canceled more than 1,000 flights on Sunday, which the company blamed on air traffic control issues and disruptive weather conditions. Analyst Savanthi Syth said she only expected “limited financial impact and no forward implications on demand” as the setbacks occurred during a downturn and were not confined to the market. southwest, but added that because the airline had already made capacity cuts to cope with operational reliability the recent setback “likely adds to unit cost pressure and may exacerbate strained union relations.” Meanwhile, Syth reiterated the outperformance rating she had on the stock since November. The sale of Southwest shares comes as the JETS US Global Jets ETF,
+ 0.35%
slipped 0.6% in pre-market trading, while ES00 futures,
+ 0.46%
for the S&P 500 SPX,
+ 0.49%
gave up 0.3%. Among other airlines, American Airlines Group Inc. shares AAL,
+ 0.77%
reduced by 0.3%, Delta Air Lines Inc. DAL,
+ 0.47%
decreased by 0.5% and United Airlines Holdings Inc. UAL,
-0.04%
lost 0.4%.