Copa Holdings (NYSE: CPA) — operator of Latin American airline Copa Airlines — recently reported third-quarter earnings that included strong year-over-year revenue growth and margin expansion. What was even more impressive was the fact that Copa put up those numbers in the face of hurricanes and an electrical failure at its primary hub in Panama City that significantly impacted the results. These events caused the airline to cancel more than 450 flights — roughly 1.5% of its total for the quarter — and cost the company an estimated $12 million in operating earnings. In spite of all that, the metrics that matter continue to look impressive for Copa.
Passenger demand keeps rising
The Latin American economic picture is looking more positive each quarter, with Copa still seeing increasing demand. Just as important, CEO Pedro Heilbron says the company is seeing «rational behavior» from its competitors in terms of fares and capacity growth. Based on these factors, the company expects appetite for air travel in the region to remain healthy into next year.
Image source: Copa Holdings
Similar to the past few quarters, Copa says it’s not seeing strong demand from one or even a handful of its markets, but improvement basically across the board — though the company noted that Brazil continues to perform even better than expected. This steady increase in demand has helped fuel increases in the company’s load factor (the percentage of seats filled with paying passengers), which was up 1.5 percentage points to 85.7%, an all-time record…
