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Copa Holdings (CPA) November Traffic Plunges, Load Factor Falls

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Copa Holdings, S.A. (CPA - Free Report) reported significant decline in traffic for November 2020 owing to coronavirus-led low travel demand. Consolidated traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs), plunged 74.6% year over year to 431.5 million.

The airline’s capacity (measured in available seat miles/ASMs), declined 72.3% year over year to 551.1 million in November. Load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) slipped 7.3 percentage points to 78.3% as traffic declined more than the contraction in capacity.

In the year-to-date period, shares of Copa Holdings have declined 23% in comparison to 24.8% decline of the industry it belongs to. The downside was primarily due to the impact of coronavirus on the company’s operations.

In this turbulent scenario, low fuel costs are a positive for the company. Evidently, average fuel cost per gallon declined 34.6% to $1.41 on a year-over-year basis in the September quarter. Fuel costs are expected to be low in the fourth quarter as well, which will support the bottom line.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Copa Holdings currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Transportation sector are Knight-Swift Transportation Holdings Inc. (KNX - Free Report) , Landstar System, Inc. (LSTR - Free Report) and Herc Holdings Inc. (HRI - Free Report) . Landstar and Knight-Swift carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), while Herc Holdings sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Long-term expected earnings per share (three to five years) growth rate for Knight-Swift, Landstar and Herc Holdings is pegged at 15%, 12% and 12.6%, respectively.

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