Copa Airlines' parent Copa Holdings reported a net profit of $166.2 million, or $3.99 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2024, slipping 11.5% compared to the same period in 2023.
Operating profits fell 4.7% to $204.2 million. Operating margin fell 0.2 percentage point to 23.3%.
Revenues totalled $877.1 million, slipping 3.9% compared to a year prior. This was largely driven by the 4.8% decrease in passenger revenues, totalling $833.2 million. Passenger yield fell 10.8% to 12.5 cents and load factor 0.4 percentage point to 86.3% drove the lower passenger revenues. In addition, the weaker currency environment in Brazil, as well as other countries, had impacted the Panama flag carrier's results.
Revenue passenger miles (RPM) were up 6.7% and capacity was up 7.2% in the quarter. PRASM was down 11.2% to 10.8 cents and RASM was down 10.4% to 11.3%. CASM was down 10.1% to 8.7 cents and excluding fuel, CASM was down 2.6% to 5.9 cents.
Operating expenses for the quarter were down 3.7% to $672.9 million, driven by lower fuel and sales, as well as lower distribution expenses.
“The decrease in the company's sales and distribution costs was driven by higher penetration of copa.com and lower-cost travel agency [new distribution capability] NDC channels as a product of the successful execution of the company's NDC strategy,” the company read in its results.
The airline launched the strategy in 2022 to better position itself in a more competitive environment. Travel agencies will have three options to adopt its NDC strategy. Agencies that opt not to adopt Copa's channels will have more “limited content” and bookings are subject to a “cost-recovery surcharge".
Fuel costs were down 17% in the quarter to $219.2 million, while labour costs were up 3.3% to $123.6 million.
For the full year, the company's net profit totalled $608.5 million, up 18.4%. Full year operating profits were down 6.7% to $753.4 million. Operating margin was down 1.5 percentage point to 21.9%.
Full year capacity was up 8.6% and RPMs were up 8%. PRASM was down 8.6% for the year to 10.9 cents and RASM was down 8.2% to 11.5%. CASM was down 6.5% for the year to 8.9 cents and excluding fuel CASM was down 3% to 5.8 cents.
At the end of the year, the company had $1.4bn in cash. Debt at the end of the year was $2bn. Adjusted net debt to EBITDA ratio was 0.5x.