Pedro Heilbron
Analyst · Raymond James. Please proceed
Thank you, Peter. I want to start by expressing my sincere appreciation to all our coworkers. Their dedication and hard work have been essential to Copa's leadership in Latin American aviation and strong financial results. To them, as always, my highest regards and admiration. As detailed in our earnings release, we delivered another quarter and full year of solid financial performance, including strong operating margins. Despite facing several challenges throughout the year, such as the partial grounding of our 737 MAX 9 fleet in January and the sudden cancellation of flights between Panama and Venezuela at the end of July, we were able to deliver an operating margin of 21.9% for the year. Our 2024 financial results are a testament to the disciplined execution of our business model, our focus on low unit cost, continued expansion of our leading hub of the Americas, and a passenger-friendly product, including best on-time performance. The combination of these factors has allowed us to deliver strong financial results on a consistent basis. Now, I'll go over the main highlights for the fourth quarter. We increased capacity by 7.2% year over year. Unit revenues or RASM came in at 11.3 cents, a 10.4% decrease compared to Q4 2023, mainly driven by a 10.8% yield reduction. The yield reduction was mainly driven by weaker currencies in Latin America as well as increased industry capacity in the region. Unit revenues were also impacted by the ongoing effect of the rescheduling of flights due to the cancellation of the Panama-Venezuela operations at the end of July. Unit cost excluding fuel or CASM ex-fuel came in at 5.9 cents, a 2.6% improvement compared to Q4 2023, mainly driven by the increase of direct sales in both copaair.com and our lower-cost NDC travel agency channel. Our operating margin for the quarter came in at 23.3%. As for the full year 2024, capacity increased by 8.6% year over year in line with our last guidance. Unit revenues or RASM decreased by 8.2% compared to 2023, to 11.5 cents. CASM ex-fuel came in at 5.8 cents, 3% below 2023. This is a milestone achievement for us, as we delivered our full-year CASM ex-fuel target one year earlier than stated in our 2023 Investor Day. And as I mentioned in my opening remarks, we achieved a 21.9% operating margin for the year. On the operational front, Copa was recently recognized by Cirium for the tenth time as the most on-time airline in Latin America for 2024. Copa's on-time performance of 88.2% was once again the highest of any carrier in the Americas and the third best in the world. Additionally, for 2024, Copa was recognized by Skytrax for the ninth consecutive year as the best airline in Central America and the Caribbean. These awards belong to more than 8,000 coworkers who day in and day out consistently deliver a world-class travel experience for our customers. Turning over to our expectations for 2025, in terms of demand, we're projecting a continuation of the current demand environment in the region. On the cost front, we expect to deliver consistent unit cost year over year, maintaining our cost discipline. These two factors together lead us to once again expect to deliver strong margins for the year as well as continued growth as we anticipate growing our year-over-year capacity within a range of 7% to 8%. Daniel will provide more details regarding our full-year guidance. To summarize, we've delivered strong fourth quarter and full-year 2024 financial results. We continue to execute on our cost efficiency, which remains key for our strategy going forward. We will keep growing our network, the most complete and convenient hub for travel in the Americas, and expect to deliver strong financial results in 2025. And as always, our team continues to deliver world-leading operational results and a passenger-friendly product. Now, I'll pass it over to Daniel, who will go over our financial highlights.