Copa Holdings reported net income of US$49.9 million for 2Q18 or earnings per share (EPS) of US$1.18, as compared to net income of US$58.6 million or earnings per share of US$1.38 in 2Q17. Operating income decreased by 27/3% to US$57.1 million mainly as a result of a 4.8% increase in unit costs (CASM) due to higher fuel prices. Operating margin for 2Q18 came in at 9.0%, compared to an operating margin of 13.7% in 2Q17.
For 2Q18, consolidated passenger traffic grew 13% while consolidated capacity grew 11.2%. As a result, consolidated load factor for the quarter increased 1.3 percentage points to 83.5%.
Total revenues for 2Q18 increased 10.5% to US$634.1 million. Yield per passenger mile decreased 2.2% to 11.4 cents and RASM came in at 9.8 cents, or 0.6% below 2Q17.
Operating cost per available seat mile (CASM) increased 4.8%, from 8.5 cents in 2Q17 to 9.0 cents in 2Q18, driven by a 32.9% higher effective fuel price. CASM excluding fuel costs decreased 5.1% from 6.3 cents in 2Q17 to 6.0 cents in 2Q18, mainly as a result of timing of expenses as well as cost reduction efforts.
Cash, short-term and long-term investments ended the quarter slightly over US$1.0 billion, representing 38.8% of the last twelve months' revenues.
Copa Holdings ended the quarter with a consolidated fleet of 101 aircraft – 68 737-800s, 14 737-700s, and 19 Embraer-190s.
For 2Q18, Copa Airlines had an on-time performance of 89.9% and a flight-completion factor of 99.8%, maintaining its position among the best in the industry.