Copa Holdings Q4 2025 Earnings Call - Strong margins and disciplined growth with flat RASM guidance
Summary
Copa closed 2025 with industry-leading margins and a conservative revenue steer. Q4 delivered $172.6 million net income, a 21.8% operating margin, and operational metrics that underscore the hub advantage: capacity +9.9% year over year, load factor 86.4%, and RASM roughly flat at $0.113. Management is guiding 11% to 13% ASM growth for 2026, targeting a 22% to 24% operating margin while assuming flattish unit revenues and CASM ex fuel of about $0.057.
The call mixed confidence with caution. Balance sheet strength is real, with $1.6 billion in liquidity, 47 unencumbered aircraft, and adjusted net debt to EBITDA of 0.6x. But there were one-off noise items, and management explicitly did not bake a currency rally into guidance. Operational headlines include re-entry and gradual ramp in Venezuela, Wi-Fi partner to be announced in April, and modest growth at low-cost sister Wingo. The board approved a $1.71 quarterly dividend for 2026 and the company has executed roughly half of a $200 million buyback program.
Key Takeaways
- Copa reported Q4 net income of $172.6 million, or $4.18 per share, and full-year 2025 net income of $671.6 million, $16.28 per share.
- Operating margin was 21.8% in Q4 and 22.6% for the full year, underscoring a low-cost hub model and disciplined execution.
- Management flagged a $7.2 million non-cash maintenance adjustment related to future leased aircraft return obligations, and a $6 million foreign currency loss tied to the Brazilian real in Q4; excluding these items Q4 net income would have been $184.1 million.
- Unit revenues, RASM, were essentially flat in Q4 at $0.113, and management is guiding flat-ish unit revenue for full-year 2026 at approximately $0.112.
- Copa expects ASMs to grow 11% to 13% in 2026, with about 50% of that being the full-year effect of 2025 capacity, 40% from added frequencies, and 10% from new destinations.
- CASM was $0.088 in Q4, and CASM ex fuel was $0.059; management is guiding CASM ex fuel around $0.057 for 2026, reaffirming a multi-year target of 5.6 cents by 2028.
- Fleet plan updated: Copa ended 2025 with 125 aircraft, now expects eight additional Boeing 737 MAX 8 deliveries in 2026 to end the year with 133 aircraft.
- Balance sheet strength stands out: $1.6 billion in cash and investments, about $500 million in pre-delivery deposits, 47 unencumbered aircraft, total debt of $2.3 billion, and adjusted net debt to EBITDA of 0.6x.
- Capital returns and buybacks: board approved a quarterly dividend of $1.71 per share for 2026, and roughly half of the $200 million buyback program has been executed to date.
- Fuel and cost assumptions for 2026 include an all-in fuel price of $2.50 per gallon and an average cost of debt for aircraft financing of 3.6%.
- Venezuela service has resumed, Copa is flying twice daily to Caracas and almost daily to Maracaibo, with a gradual plan to restore prior city count over 2026; management says Venezuela is not material to guidance.
- Wingo updates: Wingo added a 10th 737-800 in H2 2025 but will remain roughly stable in fleet and not materially grow in 2026, with Bogotá to Caracas service restarting.
- Commercial items: Copa selected a connectivity provider for onboard Wi-Fi, announcement planned for late April, product details not yet disclosed.
- Partnerships: Codeshare with Volaris launched in November and is still ramping; management does not view any potential Volaris-Viva transaction as materially affecting the codeshare today.
- Operational edge: Copa highlighted Cirium recognition as the most on-time airline in Latin America for the 11th time, with 90.75% on-time performance in 2025, reinforcing the Hub of the Americas value proposition.
Full Transcript
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Copa Holdings’ fourth quarter earnings call. During the presentation, all participants will be in listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, you will have to press star one one on your touchtone phone. As a reminder, this call is being webcast and recorded on February 12, 2026. Now I will turn the conference call over to Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings: Thank you, Marvin, and welcome everyone to our fourth quarter and full year earnings call. Joining me today are Mr. Pedro Heilbron, CEO of Copa Holdings, and Peter Donkersloot, our CFO. First, Pedro will go through our fourth quarter and full year highlights, followed by Peter, who will discuss our financial results in more detail. Immediately after, we will open the call for questions from analysts. As a reminder, Copa Holdings financial reports have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards. In today’s call, we will discuss certain non-IFRS financial measures. A reconciliation of these measures to comparable IFRS measures can be found in our earnings release, which is available on our website. Our discussion today will also contain forward-looking statements, not limited to historical facts, that reflect the company’s current beliefs, expectations, and/or intentions regarding future events and results.
These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and are based on assumptions subject to change. Many of these are discussed in our annual report filed with the SEC. Now I’d like to turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. Pedro Heilbron.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Thank you, Daniel. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our fourth quarter earnings call. Before we begin, I want to recognize our more than 8,000 coworkers. Their hard work and commitment are fundamental to Copa’s strong operational performance and continued leadership in our industry. To them, as always, my sincere appreciation and respect. We delivered another quarter and full year of strong financial and operational results, reaffirming the strength of our business model and the structural advantage of operating the best-positioned and most efficient hub for international travel in the Americas. Our results reflect strong demand trends across the region, continued discipline in our cost execution, and our relentless focus on operational excellence.
As a testament to our operational performance, in January, Copa Airlines was recognized by Cirium for the eleventh time as the most on-time airline in Latin America in 2025, with an on-time performance of 90.75%, the highest of any carrier in the Americas and the second best in the world. Once again, I want to recognize our Copa team. Without their commitment and dedication, it would not be possible to consistently deliver this level of excellence, which our customers expect from us. Now I’ll go over our fourth quarter highlights. We increased capacity by 9.9% year-over-year, while passenger traffic increased by 10.1%. As a result, our load factor increased 0.2 percentage points to 86.4%. RASM came in at $0.113, flat versus fourth quarter 2024.
We reported CASM of $0.088 and an ex-fuel CASM of $0.059, a 1.6% and 0.7% year-over-year increase, respectively. Excluding a $7.2 million non-cash adjustment to the provision for future lease return obligations, ex-fuel CASM for the quarter would have been $0.058. Operating margin came in at 21.8%. Excluding the non-cash maintenance adjustment, we would have, we would have reported an operating margin of 22.5%. Turning now to the main highlights for the full year 2025. Capacity in ASMs grew 7.8% year-over-year, while passenger traffic measured in RPMs increased by 8.6%. As a result, our load factor increased 0.7 percentage points to 87%. Unit revenues, or RASM, decreased 2.6% to $0.112.
Unit costs, or CASM, decreased 3.6% to 8.6 cents, and CASM, excluding fuel, decreased 0.7% to 5.8 cents. As mentioned before, we delivered full-year operating margin of 22.6%. Turning now to our network. Between December and January, we started service from our Hub of the Americas in Panama to Los Cabos, Mexico, Puerto Plata and Santiago in the Dominican Republic, Maracaibo in Venezuela, and Salvador Bahia in Brazil, further strengthening our position as the most complete and convenient connecting hub for travel within the Americas. Regarding our fleet, during the quarter, we took delivery of four Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and ended the year with a total of 125 aircraft.
Earlier this year, Boeing updated the fleet delivery schedule for 2026, and we now anticipate adding eight Boeing 737 MAX 8s this year, and now expect to end the year with a total fleet of 133 aircraft. We continue to see a strong demand environment across our networks as we enter 2026. Booking trends remain solid, supported by healthy travel activity, activity throughout the region, which allow us to leverage the advantages of our Hub of the Americas. The current demand environment gives us confidence in our growth plan and reinforces the foundation for another year of strong margins in 2026. Consistent with the guidance shared in our earnings release, we expect to grow capacity in the range of 11%-13% in the year.
As detailed in December at our Investor Day, approximately half of the growth is the full year impact of capacity added in 2025, with an additional 40% coming from added frequencies in existing markets, and the remaining 10% from new destinations. To summarize, we delivered strong fourth quarter and full year results for 2025. Copa was recognized for the eleventh time by Cirium as the most on-time airline in Latin America, and second best in the world. We continue to improve our already low and competitive cost structure, which remains a core pillar of our business model. We continue expanding our network, adding frequencies and new cities to our Hub of the Americas, and we’re well positioned to deliver another year of profitable growth and strong margins in 2026.
Now I’ll turn the call over to Peter, who will walk us through the financials in more detail.
Peter Donkersloot, CFO, Copa Holdings: Thank you, Pedro. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. I’d like to start by reinforcing Pedro’s recognition of our team’s continued dedication to delivering industry-leading results. Their commitment remains essential to our strong operational and financial performance. Let me begin by going over the fourth quarter highlights. We reported a net profit for the quarter of $172.6 million, or $4.18 per share, a 5.3% increase in earnings per share compared to fourth quarter 2024. Operating profit came in at $209.6 million, and we delivered an operating margin of 21.8% for the quarter.
I would like to highlight that our fourth quarter results include a $7.2 million non-cash adjustment in the maintenance, material, and repairs line related to the provision for future leased aircraft return obligation. This adjustment was driven by a reduction in the discount rate used to calculate the present value of expected end-of-lease costs, as the applicable reference rate declined during the period. Additionally, during the quarter, we reported a foreign currency loss of $6 million, mainly related as a result of the devaluation of the Brazilian real, which has since recovered in early 2026.
Excluding these two items, we would have reported a net profit for the quarter of $184.1 million, or $4.46 per share, and we would have reported an operating profit of $216.8 million and an operating margin of 22.5%. With regards to our costs for the quarter, unit costs for CASM decreased 1.6% year-over-year to $0.088, and CASM, excluding fuel, increased 0.7% year-over-year to $0.059. Excluding the non-cash maintenance-related adjustment, we would have reported an ex-fuel CASM of $0.058, flat year-over-year. Moving on to our full-year 2025 financial highlights.
We reported a net profit of $671.6 million, or $16.28 per share, which represented an 11.9% year-over-year increase in earnings per share. Operating income reached $819 million, 8.8% higher year-over-year. Operating margins came in at 22.6%, 0.8 percentage points higher than in 2024. Our consistent delivery of industry-leading operating margins underscores the strength of our business model and disciplined execution. Now, I’d like to spend some time discussing our balance sheet and liquidity. As of the end of the fourth quarter, total cash, short-term, and long-term investments stood at $1.6 billion, representing 44% of last 12-month revenues.
Further demonstrating our financial strength and flexibility, we also have approximately $500 million in pre-delivery deposits, and we currently have 47 unencumbered aircraft in our fleet. Total debt stood at $2.3 billion, and we ended the quarter with an adjusted net debt to EBITDA ratio of 0.6 times, reflecting our strong financial position.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: ... I’d like to highlight that our average cost of debt, comprised solely of aircraft-related financing, remains at a highly competitive 3.6%. Turning now to return of value to our shareholders. I am pleased to announce that for 2026, the board of directors has approved a quarterly dividend payment of $1.71 per share, to be paid in March, June, September, and December, subject to board ratification each quarter. The first quarterly payment will be made on March 13 to all shareholders of record as of February 27. Finally, turning to our outlook, we can provide the following guidance for the full year 2026. We expect to increase our capacity in ASMs within a range of 11%-13% year-over-year.
As Pedro shared earlier, around 90% of this growth comes from the full year impact of capacity added in 2025, in additional frequencies and existing markets. We expect to deliver an operating margin within the range of 22%-24%. We are basing our outlooks on the following assumptions: a load factor of approximately 87%, unit revenues of approximately 11.2 cents, CASM ex fuel of approximately 5.7 cents, consistent with our long-term target of delivering a CASM ex fuel of 5.6 cents by 2028. We’re expecting an all-in fuel price of $2.50 per gallon. Thank you, and we’ll now open the call from questions from the analysts.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. At this time, we’ll conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please limit yourself to one question and a follow-up. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Savi Syth of Raymond James. Your line is now open.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings1: Hey, good morning. Just wondering if you could, you know, with the developments in Venezuela, you know, just talk about if there was any demand impact in the region, and then, you know, what your service there is and kind of the view for that.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Yeah. Okay. So hi, Savi. We’re back flying to Venezuela, of course, and actually, we only exited the market for a short period. We are flying twice daily to Caracas, and we’re also flying to Maracaibo, which is almost daily, a little bit less than daily. Before we had to stop flying to Venezuela last year, we were serving 5 cities. We expect to go back to those cities gradually. It won’t happen right away, but we’ll be adding capacity throughout 2026.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings1: That’s helpful. And if I might, you know, you mentioned, you know, announced offering Wi-Fi. Have you chosen a provider? And you know, is that, you’re gonna be, is that for paid Wi-Fi or free, or any kind of thoughts on, on how you provide the Wi-Fi service?
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Yes, we have chosen a provider. We haven’t made it public yet. We’ll do so, I think, in April, end of April. We’ll make it public. But we are confident that our product is gonna satisfy all the needs and expectations of our clients.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings1: Very helpful. Thanks! Looking forward to it.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Duane Pfennigwerth of Evercore ISI. Your line is now open.
Duane Pfennigwerth, Analyst, Evercore ISI: Hey, hey, good morning. I wanted to ask you about stronger local currencies. You know, currencies move, maybe people don’t feel it right away, but over time, you know, purchasing power improves and you might see some demand pickup in relation to that in some of the markets that you serve. So I wonder, are you seeing any early improvement from stronger local currencies in some of your markets?
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Sure, I guess so. So, yeah, two answers to that, and we’ve talked about this before in previous calls, and we’ve always said, and it holds true today, that we do better when currencies are stronger in South America, in particular. And yes, we’re seeing improved demand and better yields as a result of the stronger currencies right now.
Duane Pfennigwerth, Analyst, Evercore ISI: Okay, and then maybe just as a follow-up, with respect to your full year guidance, which I think assumes flattish unit revenue, is, is that what you’re seeing now, or are you starting the year, you know, stronger than flattish?
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Well, we are guiding for the full year, and the first quarter is usually a strong quarter. The first and third—I mean, all of our four quarters are strong, of course. We have—we don’t have the huge seasonal swings, but quarter one and quarter three are usually the strongest, and quarter one lately has been the strongest quarter. So of course, we’re seeing stronger numbers. But we’re guiding for the full year, and it’s really early. So we are standing by our RASM guidance, and we’re also adding, you know, double digit capacity this year, so we take that into account also.
Felipe Nielsen, Analyst, Citi: Thank you.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Guilherme Mendes of J.P. Morgan. Your line is now open.
Guilherme Mendes, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Yes, thank you. Hi, Pedro, Peter, and Daniel. Thanks for taking my question. I have a follow-up on the RASM guidance. We were possibly surprised to see the flattish numbers despite of the increase in capacity and the more appreciated local currencies. Pedro, do you mind sharing more details on what’s behind that assumption, for example?
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Yeah. It’s a few things. Of course, we’re confident on our demand outlook right now, and that is behind our RASM guidance. But also there are a few other factors. One is that 50% of that ASM growth in 2026 is the full year effect of our growth in 2025. So that has already spooled up most of it. Another 40% is new frequencies, which are gonna go mostly or all of it, in markets where we need additional capacity. And we need to keep in mind also that we’ve been catching up in terms of Boeing deliveries. Now we’re getting the deliveries that we need and that have been promised.
But in previous years, in particular in 2024 and 2023, we were behind quite a bit in deliveries. So we also had some catch up to do in markets that in many cases are unique to us, and we were not able to deploy enough capacity.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Felipe Nielsen of Citi. Your line is now open. Felipe Nielsen, your line is now open.
Felipe Nielsen, Analyst, Citi: Hey, hello, guys. Sorry, I was on mute. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to explore in a little more detail the guidance on the cost side. I remember in third quarter, you guided for CASM ex fuel between $0.057-$0.058, and now you’re assuming $0.057 in the guidance. Just wondering how, if there are any factors that made you a little more optimistic about targeting the lower range of the previous guidance? And how do you see this CASM ex evolving throughout the year?
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Thank you. Thank you, Felipe. This is Peter now. So, for 2025, we reported a CASM ex-fuel of 5.8, but of course, we report to one decimal. When you look at the full number and you add a couple decimals, you see we would be close to the middle of the range between 5.7 and 5.8. So that also gives us confidence for the 5.7. And we have a lot of initiatives, some going on and some new initiatives, like we talked about, the full year effect of the sales and distribution that still have some extra savings to come in. We got a full year effect of some densification projects that are going in. We got a growth, 11%-13% growth in the supplements, like the fixed cost.
We also have new initiatives that we’re working on, and despite the fact that none of them make the headlines, the combinations of all these initiatives do add a couple of additional, a couple of additional points. I would say, what’s embedded in the guidance is all those initiatives. It’s slightly offset by some inflations and some effects, headwinds that we’re seeing.
Felipe Nielsen, Analyst, Citi: Great. And, just want to follow up. I just wanted to hear a little more from you. How do you see capacity evolving on a quarter-by-quarter basis? We know that there’s some carry from the deliveries that you took late last year. Just wondering how if we should see stronger growth in the first half of the year and then moderating in second half. Maybe if you give a little color on that thing.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Yes, you’re right. As most of the 50% of the capacity comes from full year effect of last year’s deliveries and service we launched. There it is, it is slightly front-loaded, so we are going to see being more above the range in the first half and then slightly on the lower end of the range in the second half.
Felipe Nielsen, Analyst, Citi: Okay. Thank you.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Linenberg of Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.
Guilherme Mendes, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Yeah, Pedro, just on the Venezuela service, when you listed the markets, does that actually include Wingo? And I have sort of a question tied to Wingo on how you see that business this year. Is it-
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings2: ... sort of steady on the fleet size, or, or is there potential growth in 2026 at Wingo?
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Okay. So, so sorry for that, and sorry, sorry to our Wingo coworkers. I left Wingo out. Wingo, Wingo has gone back in with their own 7 free daily frequencies from Bogotá to Caracas, and they’ll be implementing restarting Medellín to Caracas in the very near future. So no, I did not include Wingo. Wingo received a 10th 737-800 in the second half of last year. So, and then they went through a number of C checks, so they had to use that aircraft as backup for the C checks. So we’ll see the impact of their 10th aircraft this year. But otherwise, it’s stable, and Wingo won’t be growing much this year, and they’ll continue in that same path we saw last year.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings2: Great. And then just a quick second one here, Pedro. You know, I know that, you know, Cuba is not the biggest market for you, but you’ve always had long-standing service there. We’re seeing a lot of international carriers either cut the service or maybe being forced to make tech stops. Can you, do you have the ability to fly in with enough fuel from Panama City so you do not have to make a tech stop on a round-trip flight to Cuba? Where are you on that? Thanks for taking my questions.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Yeah. Thank you, Mike. Given that Panama is sea level, and the distance from here to Cuba, to Havana, well, we fly to two cities, but mostly to Havana. We can tanker in Panama and not take any fuel in Cuba, and that’s what we’re doing, with a minimal impact to our passenger capacity. So we do have to reduce the number of passengers, but very little. I think it’s by 10 or 15, something like that, passengers. And then we’re holding back from sending belly cargo. So those are the two things, the two adjustments to be able to tanker in Panama. Then Wingo, I won’t miss Wingo this time.
Wingo flies from Bogotá to Havana, and they need to make a tech stop in somewhere in Colombia, in Barranquilla, which is sea level, and that’s because Bogotá is hot and high, so they make a stop in Barranquilla at sea level.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings2: Okay. Okay, thanks for that.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Rafael Seminari of UBS BB.
Rafael Seminari, Analyst, UBS BB: Hello, and thanks for taking my question. It’s a simple question regarding the codeshare with Volaris. I wanted to know if the partnership remains with the potential deal between Volaris and Viva. Thank you.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Yes, well, our codeshare with Volaris started in November. So still spooling up, and we haven’t really addressed the Volaris-Viva merger. At least I’m not aware that we have addressed that. We expect the codeshare to continue. And in any case, it’s not gonna be a significant part of our business.
Rafael Seminari, Analyst, UBS BB: Makes sense. Thank you.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Daniel McKenzie of Seaport Global. Your line is now open.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Oh, hey, guys. Thanks for the time here. Pedro, I’m wondering if you can provide some partner perspective. So either the percent of revenue or the volume of passengers from your partners in, in 2025, you know, versus what it was, say, pre-pandemic. And, you know, what I’m trying to get at is how big a piece of the revenue story are the portfolio of, of partners? You know, is it more than 10%, less than 10%? Anything you can share. Yeah, that, that’s not a number we share. But what I can say is that, our numbers are not above pre-pandemic. If anything, they are below or slightly below. Our main partner, of course, is United.
We codeshare in many U.S. routes, and we’re also partners in Star Alliance, but we had a partnership even before that, and that partnership is healthy, is strong, and well, United is doing extremely well themselves, so we know that. But no, the numbers have not changed and have not grown really pre-pandemic. I mean, post-pandemic.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings2: Yeah, partner, United, definitely a healthy partner. Okay, second question here. Just going back to Venezuela. You know, as you think about the risk-reward of the country as part of the network, and I’m wondering what its size as a % of overall flying, you know, could ultimately look like, say, in two to three years.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: So, you know, of course, we have been born and raised in the middle of Latin America. And so if there’s something we know how to do is how to deal with changing situations, crisis of every kind. We’ve proven to be very resilient in every market we serve, and I think the better airline in managing this whole Venezuela crisis that’s taking quite a while. And we’re also very loyal to the countries and cities we serve, because we’re loyal to our passengers, and we understand the importance of the connectivity we provide through the Hub of the Americas in Panama.
And sorry for this promo ad, but we’re confident that we’re managing capacity the right way, that we understand the market, and we’re gonna be there in the future in a successful way. But along the way, we might need to make adjustments, and that’s kind of part of our day-to-day in Latin America, making adjustment. And we have enough opportunities to move around capacity. Right now, it’s from other markets to Venezuela. Before, it was from Venezuela to other markets, and we have continued returning strong demand, even though we always have to make those adjustments. It’s kind of our daily living and you know, the team, you know, this is not like I don’t have the magic wand, but we have a team that knows how to deal with changing times and changing situations.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings2: Yeah. Very good. Thanks for the time, you guys.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Thank you, Dan.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes on the line of Pablo Monsede of Barclays. Your line is now open.
Pablo Monsede, Analyst, Barclays: Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Again, on Venezuela, is any of this destination included differently in this year guidance, or it’s just basically business as usual, now? Just wanted to understand if perhaps if things improve in Venezuela, we might see some upside there, or probably will have some incremental costs if you’re thinking about expanding Venezuela at some point this year. So I just wanted to understand the impact of Venezuela in your guidance on the unit cost trajectory.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Yeah.
Pablo Monsede, Analyst, Barclays: Thank you.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Yeah. Thank you, Pablo. But it’s not material. I mean, we’re not guiding to Venezuela changing our results. There won’t be any material changes either way. I mean, there could be upside, of course, but not what we’re expecting right now. We’re expecting our service to Venezuela to be very similar to the rest of the things we do throughout our network. If we grow there, or we grow in another market, it won’t change our guidance in a significant way.
Pablo Monsede, Analyst, Barclays: Perfect. And if I can add one follow-up, just out of curiosity, have you seen any interesting trends on the World Cup this year for the summer?
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Yeah. Well, that’s an interesting topic, because, you know, World Cups in our region don’t happen even every four years, so demand patterns are gonna change due to the World Cup. And it’s gonna be different to what we’re used to dealing with, and we’re working hard to try to minimize the potential surprises from flights being very full in one direction, maybe not in the other, and then passengers that were gonna vacation in Cancún or Punta Cana, now they’re gonna go to the World Cup in the US or Mexico or Canada. So all of those changing patterns are a challenge to deal with, and we have a team working on that right now. We will fly extra sections to Toronto, where Panama is playing its first two games.
This, our third game is in New York. Not sure where we’ll play after that. If we qualify and keep on moving, not sure where ... Oh, the finals are in New York. So hopefully, hopefully, we’ll be there. But, but, we have, let’s not laugh! You never know.
Pablo Monsede, Analyst, Barclays: That’s true, that’s true.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: But of course, you know, the other teams are the favorites, so I’m not changing that. The favorites are very strong. So anyway, we will have extra sections, quite a number of extra sections to Toronto. And then we are managing the rest of the network in the best possible way.
Peter Donkersloot, CFO, Copa Holdings: Hopefully in the final, at least, even if it’s not Panama, there are two countries that we serve. That would be fantastic.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: There are many.
Peter Donkersloot, CFO, Copa Holdings: Yeah.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Yeah.
Peter Donkersloot, CFO, Copa Holdings: So, good.
Pablo Monsede, Analyst, Barclays: Interesting. Thank you.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes on the line of Jen Spees of Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings2: Hi, everyone. So we have noticed that you are planning to increase capacity in Argentina, and actually reducing a bit of capacity in Colombia. So I have, like, two-part question here. First, if you could please comment on, like, the demand dynamics you’re seeing in both of those countries. I think you already alluded a bit on Colombia, but also interesting to see what you’re seeing in Argentina and how excited you’re about those routes and demand in that market. And secondly, considering, like, how nimbly you’re allocating capacity, is it maybe fair to assume that all is equal, your load factor guidance actually conservative? Just putting that out. Thank you.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Okay, I’ll start with the second one first, because some team members, especially from the commercial department, are here on the call, and they already feel challenged by our goals. So we think it, our guidances tend to be real. Our guidance tends to be realistic, and that we are always very close to guidance year in and year out, because we make it realistic, and it’s the same guidance that our team has, and a chunk of their compensation is based on us reaching those goals. So everything is well aligned, and for that reason, we need to be realistic.
So I would say our guidances are realistic, and when there’s upside, it’s because there are other external factors that may, you know, tailwinds, that make things easier. So once in a while, that happens, of course. In terms of Colombia and Argentina, I should say that right now, all of our markets are looking well. Argentina is fine. Of course, it’s not as strong as a year ago, because as I mentioned in the previous call, a lot of capacity, it came in during 2025, but it’s still a very strong market. It’s still doing well, only that year-over-year, there’s a lot more capacity from everyone. But we’re doing well in Argentina. We serve a number of cities, our new cities, which started last year, are doing well too. So, so...
Colombia, it’s also doing okay, also.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings2: All right, perfect. Thank you. Congrats on the results. Thank you.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Thank you.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes on the line of Rogério Rajão of Bank of America. Your line is now open.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings0: Yeah. Hi, guys. Thanks for the opportunity. I have a couple here. First one, you already mentioned that, the local currencies have been supporting yields. Is this the only reason why, Copa has expectations for a flat RASM, despite of a double-digit capacity expansion? Or in your view, there are other, strengths in the region that could explain that, or maybe some supply rationality, if you could give some colors on that. That’s my first one. Thank you.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Yeah, the currency, the potential currency strength or tailwind, is not something that we’re banking on for the full year. We know the volatility of our currencies well, of a lot of currencies in our region, and when we put together our growth plan, currencies were not as strong as they are right now. So, no, that’s not... It’s not only not part of the plan, it could be a windfall, it could be, it’s a tailwind right now, but it’s not what we’re betting on for growth or for having a strong year.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings0: Okay, perfect. Thank you. And also, it felt to me a little bit challenging on, on arriving, to the CASM ex-fuel guidance, looking at my model and, and playing with the variables. So any color you could provide on which lines we could, reduce further or that you see more opportunities? Anything you could share here would be, greatly appreciated as well. Thank you.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Well, thank you. I thank you for the question. This is Pedro again. I would say that, our guidance, what has embedded is, some benefit for the global. So those lines that are fixed or semi-fixed will see a better benefit, part of the salary, wages and benefits, that part that is not operational driven. And we’re very disciplined to not grow overhead in the same line that we grow a capacity. So we’re gonna see some benefits in there, and, we should be able to see additional benefits in the sale and distribution. So I think if I would call out, I would say those were two particular lines that we could call out right now.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings0: Okay. Very clear. Thank you so much.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Thank you.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes on the line of Jeremy Mendes of JP Morgan. The line is now open.
Guilherme Mendes, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Yes, thank you so much, guys, for the follow-up. I got cut off my first question. The second one is regarding the buyback program. Pedro, if you could remind us where you are on the buyback program, how much have you executed so far?
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Yeah. Thank you, Jeremy. Since, you know, we have the buyback program approved by the board of $200 million, we have executed at more or less half of it, and we have the other half remaining open, no end dates in place, and whenever we do finalize it, we ask for a new one.
Guilherme Mendes, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Perfect. Thank you so much.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. One moment for our next question. And our last question comes from the line of Alberto Valero of UBS. Your line is now open.
Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations, Copa Holdings2: Hi, Pedro and Peter. Thank you for taking my question. My question comes from Brazil. Here we heard that there is a project to suspend the law 400 in Brazil, which-
Speaker 0: It would be good for the airlines in terms of lawsuits from the consumers to the airline. I would like to see if you already see any positive impact on the liabilities of Copa with the Brazilian consumers, and if get approval this Resolution 400, what we can see in terms of upside to the future? Thank you.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Yeah, thank you, Roberto. So the impact is gonna be on cost, of course. Many might not be aware of this, but I think something close to, like, 90% of passenger/consumer lawsuits in the world come out of Brazil. And so that’s gonna be welcomed by the industry, because the numbers just don’t make sense and are not fair to airlines or to the reality of our industry. So there will be cost savings from that, if it does pass.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Pedro. If I’m not mistaken, it’s already suspended, isn’t it? You are not being charged for the lawsuits since the end of last year. You correct me if I’m wrong. You have any impact already from this or not?
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Well, we have the impact from the lawsuits. We all have the impact from the lawsuits. So is that ... I mean, to be transparent, I’m not very familiar with the specifics of,
Speaker 0: Me neither.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: of the law, the resolution, and what’s gonna change. Of course, I’m aware of it, and it’s been discussed, but one of those things that I wanna see it to believe it. So and it would be a positive. I haven’t been very involved in the details of it, but it will be really important for the industry. It will be very positive, and especially, it will be fair to the industry. So ... And it will result in savings, of course.
Speaker 0: Fantastic. Fantastic. Thank you very much.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Thank you.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. Thank you. This concludes the question and answer session. I’ll now turn it back to Pedro Heilbron for closing remarks.
Pedro Heilbron, CEO, Copa Holdings: Thank you. So, thank you, all. This concludes our earnings call. Of course, thank you for being with us, and as always, thank you for your continued support, and have a great day.
Marvin, Conference Call Operator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect.