Pedro Heilbron
Analyst · Evercore ISI. Your line is open
Thank you, Daniel. Good morning to all and thanks for participating in our second quarter earnings call. Before we begin, I'd like to thank all our co-workers for their commitment, to the company, and recognize their continuous efforts and dedication to keep Copa at the forefront of Latin American aviation. To them, as always, my utmost respect and admiration. As all of you are aware, the significant increase in jet fuel prices has put serious pressure on the operating cost of the entire airline industry. This impact was especially noticeable in the second quarter in which in our case, the effective price of jet fuel increased more than 86% when compared to the same period in 2019. On the positive side, passenger yields for the quarter came in higher by 10.1%, partially offsetting the additional fuel costs. The combination of these two factors plus our ability to control our non-fuel related cost enabled us to deliver a 6.1% operating margin and an adjusted net profit of $13.2 million in Q2. Now, I would like to mention the main highlights for the quarter. Our capacity reached 97% of second quarter 2019 ASMs, RPMs decreased 3.8% when compared to Q2 2019, resulting in an 84.8% load factor. Passenger yields came in at $0.13 or 10% higher than in the second quarter of 2019 while cargo revenue was 62% higher, resulting in unit revenues or RASM of $11.6 and 11.3% increase compared to the second quarter of 2019. Ex-fuel CASM decreased from 6.2 cents in Q2 2019 to $0.06, representing an almost 5% decrease on 3% less capacity and, on the operational front, Copa earnings delivered an on-time performance of 85.9% and a completion factor of 99.8%. In terms of fleet, during the quarter, we took delivery of one 737 MAX 9 to end the quarter with a total of 94 aircraft, reaching 92% of our year-end 2019 fleet size. With the addition of this aircraft and the expected remaining deliveries for the year, more than 20% of fleet will be composed of MAX aircraft, resulting in valuable fuel efficiencies. This figure has also included our recently retrofitted 737-800 freighter, which operated during the entire quarter, carrying almost 30% of our total cargo volume. By shifting most of our previously third party cargo operation to the retrofitted freighter, we're able to transport higher cargo volumes at lower cost. In terms of our network, Copa Airlines started operations in two new cities during the quarter, Santa Marta in Colombia and Barcelona and Venezuela, ending the quarter with service to 76 cities in 32 countries compared to 80 cities in 33 countries in year-end 2019. We also announced a new service to the Santa Lucia airport in Mexico City, starting in September, which will complement our existing service to Mexico City as we continue strengthening and solidifying our position as the most complete and convenient hub in Latin America. Turning now to Wingo, Wingo continues its regional expansion with the announcement of four new routes starting in October. With this addition, we will operate 31 routes with service to 21 cities in 10 countries. [Technical Difficulty]. So, you can see despite the current fuel price environment affecting the entire airline industry, we have established our capacity and network to near pre-pandemic levels and continue delivering profitable financial results. Looking ahead, we continue to see a recovering demand environment in the region and healthy booking trends, which lead us to anticipate an increase in our unit revenues for Q3 and consequently to expect higher operating margins quarter over quarter. In Q3, we also expect to bring back our capacity, measured in ASMs, to a 100% of our pre-pandemic levels. Nonetheless, considering the uncertainty of the current economic environment, we remain cautious and continue to closely monitor demand patterns in the region. So, we will remain focused and flexible in terms of capacity, adjusting our plans as needed. I would like to conclude by reiterating that we have a proven and strong [Technical Difficulty], convenient network for intra-Latin America travel from our Hub of the America, leveraging Panama's advantageous geographic position with low unit costs, best-on-time performance, and a strong balance sheet and we expect that our Hub of the Americas will continue to be a valuable source of strategic advantage. Now, I'll turn it over to Jose, who will go over our financial results in more detail.