Copa Holdings' February Traffic And Load Factor Increase

Copa Holdings, S.A. (NYSE:CPA) reported mixed traffic numbers for February 2020. Consolidated traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles (RPMs), inched up 0.4% to 1.64 billion in the month. On a year-over-year basis, consolidated capacity (measured in available seat miles/ASMs) remained flat at 1.96 billion.

With traffic expanding and capacity remaining flat, load factor (% of seats filled by passengers) increased 40 basis points (bps) to 84%.

In the first two months of 2020, the carrier generated RPMs of 3.5 billion, down 2.9% year over year. In the same time frame, Copa Holdings recorded ASMs of 4.1 billion, down 3.8%. With traffic declining less than the amount of capacity contraction, load factor increased 80 bps to 84.1%.

This fall in capacity was primarily due to extended grounding of the Boeing (NYSE:BA) 737 MAX jets. The carrier with six Boeing MAX 9 jets in its fleet removed all MAX flights from its schedule through August 2020. Consequently, multiple fight cancellations are affecting revenues.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Copa Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Few better-ranked stocks in Zacks Airline industry are Azul SA (NYSE:AZUL) , Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:VLRS) and Ryanair Holdings plc (NASDAQ:RYAAY) . Azul and Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), whereas Ryanair carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Azul has trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of more than 100%, on average. The carrier reported lower-than-expected earnings per share (EPS) in one quarter and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the other three.

Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion has trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of more than 100%, on average. The carrier reported better-than-expected EPS in all of the last four quarters.

Ryanair has trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 56.3%, on average. The carrier reported lower-than-expected EPS in one of the last four quarters and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the other three.

The Hottest Tech Mega-Trend of All

Last year, it generated $24 billion in global revenues. By 2020, it's predicted to blast through the roof to $77.6 billion. Famed investor Mark Cuban says it will produce "the world's first trillionaires," but that should still leave plenty of money for regular investors who make the right trades early.

See Zacks' 3 Best Stocks to Play This Trend >>