Copa Holdings' Q3 Earnings Surpass Estimates, Revenue Miss

Copa Holdings, S.A. (CPA) reported third-quarter 2025 earnings per share of $4.20, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.03 and improved 20% year over year. Revenues of $913.1 million missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $915 million and inched up 6.8% year over year.

Passenger revenues (which contributed 94.3% to the top line) grew 5.2% year over year to $861.33 million. The upside was owing to an 8% year-over-year increase in revenue passenger miles (RPMs), partially offset by a 2.6% decrease in yield.

Cargo and mail revenues of $29.68 million grew 21.4% year over year, owing to higher cargo volumes. Other operating revenues of $22.13 million improved 86.3% year over year, owing to increased ConnectMiles revenues from the renewal of a co-branded credit card agreement.

CPA’s Other Financial Details

On a consolidated basis, Copa Holdings’ traffic (measured in revenue passenger miles) grew 8% 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 1.8 percentage points to 88% in the reported quarter.

Passenger revenue per available seat mile dipped 0.5% year over year to 10.5 cents. Revenue per available seat mile (RASM) grew 1% year over year to 11.1 cents. Cost per available seat mile dipped 2.7% year over year. Excluding fuel, the metric fell 0.8% year over year. The average fuel price per gallon decreased 6.1% year over year to $2.44.

Total operating expenses increased 2.9% year over year to $700.84 million, owing to capacity growth, partially offset by lower fuel and maintenance costs.

Expenses on wages, salaries, benefits and other employee expenses rose 5.4% year over year. Sales and distribution costs increased 6.6% year over year. Passenger servicing costs grew 4.8% from the year-ago quarter. Airport facilities and handling charges grew 8.8% year over year. Other operating and administrative expenses increased 3.5% from the third quarter of 2024.

Copa Holdings exited the third quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $248.82 million compared with $236.17 million at the prior-quarter end.

During the third quarter of 2025, CPA took delivery of five Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft and added a second Boeing 737-800 freighter under an operating lease agreement. 

CPA’s Outlook

CPA’s management expects consolidated capacity to grow 8% (prior view: up 7-8%) year over year, and the operating margin is expected to be in the range of 22-23% (prior view: 21-23%). The fuel cost is expected to be $2.47 per gallon (prior view: $2.45).

RASM is still expected to be 11.2 cents. The load factor for the current year is expected to be 87%. Non-fuel unit costs are anticipated to be 5.8 cents.

Preliminarily, for 2026, CPA currently anticipates its capacity to grow by almost 11-13% on a year-over-year basis, with unit costs excluding fuel (Ex-Fuel CASM) expected to be in the range of 5.7 to 5.8 cents.

Copa Holdings expects to end 2025 with 124 aircraft (prior view: 125 aircraft) and 2026 with 132 aircraft (prior view: 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.

Q3 Performances of Other Transportation Companies

Delta Air Lines DAL reported third-quarter 2025 earnings (excluding 46 cents from non-recurring items) of $1.71 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.52. Earnings increased 14% on a year-over-year basis due to low fuel costs.

Revenues in the September-end quarter were $16.67 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $15.79 billion and increasing 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. Due to improving air-travel demand, adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) increased 4.1% year over year to $15.2 billion. 

J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (JBHT) reported third-quarter 2025 earnings of $1.76 per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.47 and improved 18.1% year over year.

Total operating revenues of $3.05 billion surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.02 billion and were down 0.5% year over year. JBHT’s third-quarter revenue performance was hurt by a 1% and 4% decline in gross revenue per load in Intermodal (JBI) and Truckload (JBT), respectively, a decrease in load volume of 8% and 1% in Integrated Capacity Solutions (ICS) and Dedicated Contract Services (DCS), and 8% fewer stops in Final Mile Services (FMS). These items were partially offset by a 3 % improvement in DCS productivity, a 9% increase in revenue per load in ICS and 14% load growth in JBT. Total operating revenue, excluding fuel surcharge revenue, fell less than 1% year over year.

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

UAL's third-quarter 2025 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) (excluding 12 cents from non-recurring items) of $2.78 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.64 but declined 16.5% on a year-over-year basis. The reported figure lies above the guided range of $2.25 and $2.75.

Operating revenues of $15.2 billion fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $15.3 billion but increased 2.6% year over year. Passenger revenues (which accounted for 90.7% of the top line) increased 1.9% year over year to $13.8 billion. UAL flights transported 48,382 passengers in the third quarter, up 6.2% year over year.

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