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Copa Holdings (CPA) Traffic & Load Factor Increase in May

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Copa Holdings, S.A. (CPA - Free Report) reported impressive traffic results for May. Traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs), came in at 1.84 billion, up 16.1% from the year-ago figure.

On a year-over-year basis, consolidated capacity (or available seat miles/ASMs) climbed 13.4% to 2.19 billion. As the escalation in traffic outpaced capacity growth, load factor (% of seats filled by passengers) expanded 200 basis points (bps) to 84.4% in the month.

For the first five months of 2018, Copa Holdings generated RPMs of 8.78 billion (up 11.8% year over year) and ASMs of 10.57 billion (up 10.1%). Load factor registered a rise of 130 bps year over year to 83%.


 

Notably, the company has been increasingly benefitting from solid demand for air travel, backed by an improved Latin American economy. The encouraging traffic report can also be attributed to this reason.

A positive scenario is all the more evident from the company’s robust first-quarter results reported last month. Total revenues rose 15.9% year over year, mainly owing to a 16.3% improvement in passenger revenues. The company's performance with respect to unit revenues is laudable as well. Both passenger revenue per available seat miles (PRASM) and RASM ascended 7.2% year over year.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Copa Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Transportation sector are GATX Corporation (GATX - Free Report) , SkyWest, Inc. (SKYW - Free Report) and Expeditors International of Washington, Inc. (EXPD - Free Report) .  While GATX and SkyWest carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), Expeditors sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of GATX and Expeditors have rallied more than 18% each, in the past six months, while SkyWest stock has gained above 9%.

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