Copa Holdings Shares Up 7.7% Since Q2 Earnings & Revenue Beat

Copa Holdings, S.A. (CPA) reported solid second-quarter 2025 results, wherein both earnings and revenues surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The development, naturally, pleased investors, with the stock improving 7.7% since the earnings release on Aug. 06.

Quarterly earnings per share of $3.61 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.25 and improved 25.3% year over year. Revenues of $842.60 million beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $834.8 million and inched up 2.8% year over year, due to an 8% increase in onboard passengers.

Passenger revenues (which contributed 94.6% to the top line) grew 2% year over year to $797.26 million. The upside was owing to a 6.4% year-over-year increase in revenue passenger miles (RPMs), offset by a 4.1% decrease in passenger yield. Second-quarter results majorly include flown passenger ticket revenues and passenger-related ancillary revenues.

Cargo and mail revenues of $28.3 million grew 12.4% year over year, owing to an increase in cargo volumes. Other operating revenues of $17.03 million improved 33.9% year over year, owing to the rise in ConnectMiles revenues from non-air partners.

CPA’s Other Financial Details

On a consolidated basis, Copa Holdings’ traffic (measured in revenue passenger miles) grew 6.4% and capacity (measured in available seat miles) increased 5.8% from the year-ago quarter. Since traffic growth outpaced capacity expansion, the load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) increased 0.5 percentage points to 87.3% in the reported quarter.

Passenger revenue per available seat mile dipped 3.6% year over year to 10.1 cents. Revenue per available seat mile (RASM) declined 2.8% year over year to 10.7 cents. Cost per available seat mile dipped 4.6% year over year. Excluding fuel, the metric grew 3.2% year over year. The average fuel price per gallon decreased 17% year over year to $2.32.

Total operating expenses increased 0.9% year over year to $665.98 million owing to higher capacity and maintenance, materials, and repairs costs, mostly offset by lower fuel, passenger-servicing, and sales and distribution expenses.

Expenses on wages, salaries, benefits and other employee expenses rose 6.5%. Maintenance, materials and repairs jumped more than 100% year over year. Sales and distribution costs decreased 5.3% year over year. Passenger servicing costs fell 8.7% from the year-ago quarter. Other operating and administrative expenses decreased 3.6% from the second quarter of 2024.

Copa Holdings exited the second quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $236.17 million compared with $164.82 million at the prior-quarter end.

CPA’s 2025 Outlook

CPA’s management expects consolidated capacity to grow 7-8% year over year, and the operating margin is expected to be in the range of 21-23%. RASM is expected to be 11.2 cents.

The load factor for the current year is expected to be 87% (prior view: 86.5%). Non-fuel unit costs are anticipated to be 5.8 cents. The fuel cost is expected to be $2.45 per gallon (prior view: $2.40). Copa Holdings expects to end 2025 with 125 aircraft and 2026 with 131 aircraft.

Currently, CPA carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Q2 Performances of Other Transportation Companies

Delta Air Lines (DAL) reported second-quarter 2025 earnings (excluding $1.17 per share from non-recurring items) of $2.10 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.04. Earnings decreased 11% on a year-over-year basis due to high labor costs.

Revenues in the June-end quarter were $16.65 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $16.2 billion and decreasing marginally on a year-over-year basis. Adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) increased 1% year over year to $15.5 billion. 

J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (JBHT) reported second-quarter 2025 earnings of $1.31 per share, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.34 and declined 0.8% year over year.

Total operating revenues of $2.93 billion missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.94 billion and were flat year over year. JBHT’s second-quarter revenue performance witnessed a 6% increase in Intermodal (JBI) loads, a 13% increase in Truckload (JBT) loads, a 3% increase in Dedicated Contract Services (DCS) productivity and a 6% increase in Integrated Capacity Solutions (ICS) revenue per load. These items were offset by Final Mile Services revenue declining 10%, lower revenue per load in both JBI and JBT, a 9% decrease in ICS load volume and a 3% decline in average trucks in DCS. Total operating revenues, excluding fuel surcharge revenue, increased 1% on a year-over-year basis.

United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (UAL) reported mixed second-quarter 2025 results wherein the company’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate, but revenues missed the same.

UAL's second-quarter 2025 adjusted earnings per share of $3.87 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny but declined 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. The reported figure lies within the guided range of $3.25-$4.25.

Operating revenues of $15.2 billion fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $15.4 billion but increased 1.7% year over year. Passenger revenues (which accounted for 90.8% of the top line) increased 1.1% year over year to $13.8 billion. UAL flights transported 46,186 passengers in the second quarter, up 4.1% year over year.

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