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Copa Holdings' (CPA) August Traffic Falls 35% From 2019 Level

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Copa Holdings’ (CPA - Free Report) traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs), declined 35.2% to 1.17 billion in August 2021 from the comparable period in 2019. The downside was caused by lower air-travel demand from the pre-pandemic levels (2019), due to rising cases of the Delta variant in Panama City.

Thanks to the tepid demand, capacity — measured in available seat miles (ASMs) — fell 30.6% from the 2019 level to 1.47 billion. With traffic declining more than the amount of capacity contraction, load factor (percentage of seats filled with passengers) deteriorated 570 basis points to 79.6% in August.

The picture is rosier on a month-over-month basis. Owing to increased inoculation programs, air-travel demand is continuously improving. The Panama-based carriers’ August traffic statistics represent a significant increase on a month-over-month basis. Traffic rose nearly 3.4% sequentially in August, while capacity climbed 2.4%. Since traffic expansion outweighed capacity growth, load factor improved 80 basis points in August from the July level.

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) . Knight-Swift and Landstar carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), while Herc Holdings sports 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 49.2%, respectively.
 

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