Copa Holdings has reported net income of US$63.0 million for 2Q17 or earnings per share (EPS) of US$1.49, compared to net income of US$54.5 million or earnings per share of US$1.29 in 2Q16.
Excluding special items, Copa would have reported an adjusted net income of US$62.8 million, or adjusted EPS of US$1.48, compared to an adjusted net income of US$21.5 million or adjusted EPS of US$0.51 in 2Q16. Special items for 2Q17 include a non-cash gain of US$0.2 million associated with the mark-to-market of fuel hedge contracts. Special items for 2Q16 include a US$7.6 million loss related to foreign currency fluctuations and a non-cash gain of US$40.6 million associated with the mark-to-market of fuel hedge contracts.
Operating income for 2Q17 came in at US$83.0 million, representing a 139.9% increase over operating income of US$34.6 million in 2Q16, as a result of 8.6% additional capacity, a 7.5% increase in unit revenue per available seat mile (RASM), and a 1% decrease in unit costs. Operating margin for 2Q17 came in at 14.4%, compared to an operating margin of 7.0% in 2Q16.
Total revenues for 2Q17 increased 16.8% to US$578.1 million. Yield per passenger mile increased 3.0% to 11.8 cents and RASM came in at 10 cents, or 7.5% above 2Q16.
For 2Q17, consolidated passenger traffic grew 14.1% while consolidated capacity grew 8.6%. As a result, consolidated load factor for the quarter increased 3.9 percentage points to 82.2%.
Operating cost per available seat mile (CASM) decreased 1%, from 8.6 cents in 2Q16 to 8.5 cents in 2Q17. CASM excluding fuel costs remained flat at 6.3 cents in 2Q17 and 2Q16.
Cash, short-term and long-term investments ended 2Q17 at US$924.6 million, representing 39% of the last twelve months' revenues.
In June, Copa Airlines announced a new flight to Mendoza, Argentina, starting in November 2017.
The Copa Board of Directors has approved an increase in dividend pay-out of more than US$20 million for the second half of 2017, which will represent an additional $0.24 per share, per quarter, for the third and fourth quarters of 2017.