Give airline stock Spirit Airlines (NYSE:SAVE) investors credit for sheer resilience. Spirit Airlines just basically decimated—and in the classical sense, too—its flight schedules, and despite that, its stock is still up somewhat in the closing minutes of Friday’s trading session.
Decimation—in which one in 10 is killed or otherwise shut down—used to be a punishment for mutiny in the Roman Legions. Now, it’s a necessary safety measure by Spirit Airlines, who shut down 11% of its flights due to “necessary inspections.” Over 40 flights going into and out of Orlando International Airport were shut down today, as Spirit staged inspections on around 25 of its aircraft. The move was taken out of “an abundance of caution” as opposed to any specific or known point of failure, reports noted.
But perhaps even worse, the disruptions to Spirit’s flight schedule are expected to last for the next several days. Even the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) stepped in on this one. While it didn’t describe the nature of the inspections involved, it did note that it would “…ensure that the matter is addressed before the airplanes are returned to service.” Here’s a particularly interesting note: for anyone who thought that Spirit might have been hit by Boeing (NYSE:BA) and its issues with false parts, it’s not so. Spirit only flies Airbus (OTHEROTC:EADSF) planes in its fleet.
Is Spirit Airlines a Good Stock to Buy Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on SAVE stock based on five Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average SAVE price target of $17.90 per share implies 9.35% upside potential.
