Pedro Heilbron
Analyst · Evercore ISI. Your line is now open
Thank you, Raul. Good morning to all and thank you for participating in our second quarter earnings call. First of all, I want to congratulate all of our coworkers for their efforts during the quarter. Their ongoing dedication and commitment keeps us at the forefront of Latin American aviation. The second quarter presented us with several challenges, especially in the commercial front. We faced the sudden cancellation of close to 900 flights to Venezuela, of which about half were eventually reinstated, and weakening currency in the region, mainly in Brazil and Argentina. In addition, a year-over-year increase of 33% in our effective fuel price put significant pressure on unit costs and resulted in a year-over-year reduction in margins. We still firmly believe that higher oil prices should translate into stronger Latin American economy, and eventually higher yield to offset the additional fuel extent. But this effect is not immediate and has been happened yet. Among the main highlights for the quarter, passenger traffic grew up solid 13% year-over-year outpacing our capacity growth of 11.2%. This resulted in a strong 83.5% load factor, 1.3% percentage points higher year-over-year. Yields came in at $11.4 or 2.2% lower than in the second quarter of 2017. Unit revenues or RASM, decreased 0.6% year-over-year to $9.8. On the cost side CASM came in at $0.09, 4.8% higher year-over-year due to higher fuel expenses. However, a fuel unit cost came in at $0.06 or 5.1% lower year-over-year due to the timing of certain events and cost reduction efforts. Our operating margin came in at 9%, 4.7 percentage points lower than the second quarter of 2017. On the operational front, Copa earnings delivered an on-time performance of 89.9% and a completion factor of 99.8%, again among the best in the world. Turning now to the rest of 2018. Bookings continue to come in relatively strong in most of the network. However, Europe softness, particularly in Brazil and Argentina is preventing us from achieving the unit revenue growth needed to offset the additional fuel expense. As such, we are building our guidance for the year to reflect lower unit revenues and a higher fuel expense. We're also moderating our capacity growth by being even more aggressive in our low-season cancellations and making capacity adjustments in some of the most affected markets. As always, Jose will share all the details on the updated guidance and assumptions for the rest of the year. Regarding Brazil and Argentina, during the second quarter, these two markets paid year-over-year currency evaluations of 15% and 43% respectively. And even though there has been some moderation by the industry, international capacity in those markets remained higher than in 2017. We have also been adding new destinations in these countries. And while this has been planned for a long time and will most likely end up being great additions to the network, the timing is not optimal. All these factors made to an adverse revenue environment, which will also be reflected in the third quarter results. We have seen in the past, how higher oil prices benefit the Latin American economy and eventually lead to a better yield environment in the region. But we're not sitting idly, waiting for that to happen. As you have seen in our results, our unit costs are at lowest ever and we will continue looking for efficiencies and saving opportunities. Furthermore, during the next few years as the MAX aircraft becomes an important portion of our fleet, we should start seeing additional benefits to our cost structure especially we remain in a high fuel price environment. We continue to make progress in our ancillary revenue and loyalty program efforts, including the selling of miles, upgrades, seat assignments and second bag fees in selected markets. We also have technology initiatives in the pipeline that we expect will enhance and accelerate our ancillary revenue performance. In summary, we continue working to strengthen our business model and further our ability to produce premium margins regardless of where the fuel price might be. Turning now to our fleet. We already received our last two 737-800s, one in January and one in April, and have returned one Embraer-190, upon its lease expiration in March. In the second half of the year, we expect to receive five 737 MAX 9s, and end the year with a consolidated fleet of 106 aircraft. We’re looking forward to the arrival of our first MAX 9 later this month, which will delivered both revenue opportunities and cost efficiencies. In regards to our network, in July, we started three new flights, Fortaleza and Salvador, our 8th and 9th destinations in Brazil, and Bridgetown, Barbados, our 16th destination in the Caribbean. We also announced two new destinations for the end of the year, Puerto Vallarta in Mexico and Salta in Argentina, both starting in December. After these additions, Copa will provide service to 80 destinations in 32 countries, in North, Central, South America and the Caribbean. By far the most complete and efficient network for intra-Latin America travel. As a testament to our customer loyalty and satisfaction, last month, we were once again awarded Best Airline, and Best Airline Staff in our region by the Skytrax World Airline Awards. We're incredibly proud with the efforts that are more than 9,000 coworkers put in day after day to places among the best Airlines in the world. Finally, during the significant interest from investor community, we are confirming today that we have been actively participating in discussions with United and Avianca about the possibility of forming a joint business agreement that will cover our combined networks between the U.S. and Latin America. These details are still being discussed, and have not been finalized, so we don’t have a specific announcement to make. If and when we complete an agreement, we will provide much more details. Until then we don’t expect to share any further information. To summarize, we expect lower unit revenues for the year, especially in the third quarter, based mostly on yields softness in Brazil and Argentina. We are moderating our growth to accommodate the softer market conditions. Our team continues to deliver world-class operational results, including one of the world's highest on-time performance. We continue delivering efficiencies and savings, which have further lowered our industry leading the unit costs. We also continue focusing on revenue opportunities, including ancillary initiatives that are aimed at strengthening our resource. Lastly, despite the current challenges, which we believe could be temporary, we’re confident of favoring our business model and our financial strength. We have the most complete network for travel within the America and extremely flexible fleet plan, the lowest unit costs, a very strong liquidity position with low leverage and a highly committed team making us the best positioned to consistently deliver industry leading results. Now, I’ll turn it over Jose, who will go over our financial results in more detail.