Copa Holdings reported a net loss of $156.0 million for 4Q18 or a loss per share of $3.67, as compared to net profit of $101.4 million or earnings per share of $2.39 in 4Q17.
Excluding special items, which include a one-time, non-cash fleet impairment charge of $188.6 million, and a noncash $11.4 million-dollar loss associated with foreign currency, Copa would have reported a net profit of $44.0 million, or adjusted EPS of US$1.04, compared to an adjusted net profit of $89.5 million or adjusted EPS of US$2.11 in 4Q17. In 4Q18, Copa had an operating loss of $129.7 million. Total revenues for 4Q18 decreased 2.7% to $656.1 million. Yield per passenger mile decreased 7.7% to 11.8 cents, mostly due to currency weakness in Brazil and Argentina. RASM came in at 10.2 cents, or 7.7% below 4Q17.
For 4Q18, consolidated passenger traffic grew 4.9% while consolidated capacity grew 5.5%. As a result, consolidated load factor for the quarter decreased 0.4 percentage points to 82.8%.
For full year 2018, net profit came in at $88.1 million compared to a net profit of $364.0 million in 2017. Excluding the special items, Copa Holdings would have reported an adjusted net profit of $276.7 million or EPS of $6.52, compared to an adjusted net profit of $349.9 million or adjusted EPS of $8.25 for full year 2017. For full year 2018, Copa reported operating profit of $145.0 million. For full year 2018, consolidated load factor was 83.4%, 0.2 percentage points higher than 2017 on a 7.9% capacity growth.