Copa Holdings, S.A. (NYSE:CPA) reported mixed traffic numbers for February 2020. Consolidated traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs), inched up 0.4% to 1.64 billion in the month. On a year-over-year basis, consolidated capacity (measured in available seat miles/ASMs) remained flat at 1.96 billion.
With traffic expanding and capacity remaining flat, load factor (% of seats filled by passengers) increased 40 basis points (bps) to 84%.
In the first two months of 2020, the carrier generated RPMs of 3.5 billion, down 2.9% year over year. In the same time frame, Copa Holdings recorded ASMs of 4.1 billion, down 3.8%. With traffic declining less than the amount of capacity contraction, load factor increased 80 bps to 84.1%.
This fall in capacity was primarily due to extended grounding of the Boeing (NYSE:BA) 737 MAX jets. The carrier with six Boeing MAX 9 jets in its fleet removed all MAX flights from its schedule through August 2020. Consequently, multiple fight cancellations are affecting revenues.
Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Copa Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Few better-ranked stocks in Zacks Airline industry are Azul SA (NYSE:AZUL) , Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:VLRS) and Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) . Azul and Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), whereas Ryanair carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Azul has trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of more than 100%, on average. The carrier reported lower-than-expected earnings per share (EPS) in one quarter and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the other three.
Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion has trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of more than 100%, on average. The carrier reported better-than-expected EPS in all of the last four quarters.
Ryanair has trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 56.3%, on average. The carrier reported lower-than-expected EPS in one of the last four quarters and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the other three.
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Ryanair Holdings PLC (RYAAY): Free Stock Analysis Report
Copa Holdings, S.A. (CPA): Free Stock Analysis Report
Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion, S.A.B. de C.V. (VLRS): Free Stock Analysis Report
AZUL SA (AZUL): Free Stock Analysis Report
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