Copa Q4 2024 Earnings Report

Copa EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $3.99
• Consensus EPS: $3.84
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.15
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Copa Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: N/A
• Expected Revenue: $880.65 million
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Copa Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2024
• Date: 2/12/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, February 13, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 11:00AM ET

Copa (NYSE:CPA), through its subsidiaries, provides airline passenger and cargo services. The company offers approximately 375 daily scheduled flights to 82 destinations in 32 countries in North, Central, and South America, as well as the Caribbean from its Panama City hub. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 106 aircraft comprising 76 Boeing 737-Next Generation aircraft, 29 Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft, and one Boeing 737-800 Boeing Converted Freighter. The company was founded in 1947 and is based in Panama City, Panama.

Copa Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Pedro Hedron announced the appointment of Peter Donkerslod as CFO effective March 10, citing his deep operational and financial acumen to support Copa’s growth strategy.
• In 2024 Copa grew capacity 8.6% and delivered a 21.9% operating margin, with unit cost ex-fuel down 3% to $0.058 despite an 8.2% RASM decline driven by weaker Latin currencies and higher industry capacity.
• Copa earned its tenth Cerium award as the most on-time airline in Latin America (88.2%) and ninth consecutive SkyTrax accolade as the best airline in Central America and the Caribbean.
• For 2025 the airline targets 7–8% ASM growth, a 20–22% operating margin, an 86.5% load factor, $0.113 RASM and $2.60/gal fuel cost, underpinned by strict unit-cost discipline.
• Year-end 2024 liquidity stood at $1.4 billion in cash versus $2 billion in debt (0.5× net debt/EBITDA), plans to expand the fleet to 126 aircraft by end-2025 and will return value via a $1.61/share quarterly dividend plus $113 million of remaining buybacks.

Presentation

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to Copa Holdings Fourth Quarter Earnings Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this call is being webcast and recorded on 02/13/2025.

[Operator]

Now, I will turn the conference call over to Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.

[Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations at Copa Holdings]

Thank you, Carmen, and welcome everyone to our fourth quarter and full year earnings call. Joining me today are Pedro Hedron, CEO of Copa Holdings and Peter Dankerslott, who was recently appointed as the company's CFO. First, Pedro will start by going over our fourth quarter and full year highlights. Afterwards, I will go over our financial highlights. Immediately after, we will open the call for questions from analysts.

[Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations at Copa Holdings]

Copa Holdings' financial reports have been prepared in accordance with international financial reporting standards. In today's call, we will discuss non IFRS financial measures. A reconciliation of the non IFRS to IFRS financial measures can be found in our earnings release, which has been posted on the company's website, copair.com. Our discussion today will also contain forward looking statements not limited to historical facts that reflect the company's current beliefs, expectations and or intentions regarding future events and results. These forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and are based on assumptions subject to change.

[Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations at Copa Holdings]

Many of these are discussed in our annual report filed with the SEC. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to our CEO, Mr. Pedro Hedron.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Thank you, Daniel. Good morning to all and thanks for participating in our fourth quarter and full year earnings call. Before I start, I want to welcome Peter Donkerslod into his new role as CFO. Peter has a strong record of leadership and strategic vision, having held key positions with full P and L responsibility in multiple countries across the continent for a large publicly traded company and for the last five years as Copa Head of HR, where he has been an integral part of our success coming out of the pandemic. His understanding of our operations and company culture combined with his strong financial acumen makes him uniquely qualified to lead our financial strategy as we continue to grow and evolve in a rapidly changing industry.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

We're excited to have him step into this new role and look forward to the positive impact he will undoubtedly bring. Peter will officially join the finance team on March 10, following his transition from his current role in HR. Peter, I'll turn it over to you.

[Peter Donkersloot, CFO at Copa Holdings]

Thank you, Pedro, and thanks everybody for joining our call today. It has been a great honor to lead Copa's HR team for the last five years, and I'm truly excited to take on the role of CFO. As Pedro mentioned, in addition to my most recent experience leading the HR team, I've worked in many countries through the continent as General Manager as well as overseeing commercial operations, logistic, risk assessment and financial planning. As you can imagine, as a Panamanian, I'm very proud to be part of Copa's management team, especially given our track record of delivering product and connectivity our customers value combined with strong financial results and industry leading unit cost. I'm eager to lead our finance team in building on the strong foundations and continue to delivering value to our shareholders.

[Peter Donkersloot, CFO at Copa Holdings]

Back to

[Peter Donkersloot, CFO at Copa Holdings]

you, Pedro.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Thank you, Peter. I want to start by expressing my sincere appreciation to all of our co workers. 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.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

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 seven thirty seven MAX nine fleet in January and the sudden cancellation of flights between Panama and Venezuela at the 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.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

We increased capacity by 7.2% year over year. Unit revenues or RASM came in at $0.113 a 10.4% decrease compared to Q4 twenty twenty three, mainly driven by 10.8% year over year decrease in passenger yields. 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 July. Unit cost excluding fuel or CASM X came in at $0.059 a 2.6% improvement compared to Q4 twenty twenty three, mainly driven by the increase of direct sales in both Copa dot com and our lower cost NDC travel agency channel.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

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 $0.115 CASA mixed fuel came in at $0.058 3 percent below 2023. This is a milestone achievement for us as we delivered our full year CasaMex target one year earlier than stated in our twenty twenty three Investor Day. And as I mentioned in my opening remarks, we achieved a 21.9% operating margin for the year.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

On the operational front, Copa was recently recognized by Cerium 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 our more than 8,000 co workers, who day in and day out consistently deliver a world class travel experience for our customers. Turning over to our expectations for 2025.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

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 delivered strong fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

We continue to execute on our cost efficiencies, which remain key to our strategy going forward. We will keep growing our network, the most complete and convenient hub for travel in The Americas. We 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.

[Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations at Copa Holdings]

Thank you, Pedro. We reported a net profit for Q4 of $166,200,000 or $3.99 per share. For the full year, our net profit came in at $608,500,000 or $14.56 per share. In terms of operating income, we reported an operating profit for the quarter of $204,200,000 and an operating margin of 23.3%. Our operating profit for the full year came in at $753,400,000 and 21.9% of operating margin.

[Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations at Copa Holdings]

Turning now to our balance sheet. As of the end of the year, we had over $1,400,000,000 in cash short and long term investments, which represents 42% of the company's last twelve months revenues. In terms of debt, we ended the year with $2,000,000,000 in debt and lease liabilities and adjusted net debt to EBITDA ratio of 0.5 times. Our average cost of debt entirely related to aircraft financing remains highly competitive at an average rate of 3.5%. Approximately 65% of this debt is fixed rate.

[Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations at Copa Holdings]

Regarding our fleet, we received two additional seven MAX-8s in the fourth quarter to end the year with a total fleet of 112 aircraft. Looking ahead to 2025, we expect to receive 13 additional seven thirty seven MAX 8s starting with two in June and one additional Boeing seven thirty seven-eight hundred freighter. With these additions, we expect the year end fleet to reach 126 aircraft. As of now, we have secured an operating lease agreement for the additional freighter in financing for three of the Boeing seven thirty seven MAX eight deliveries via Joco financing. Turning now to the return of value to our shareholders, I'm pleased to announce that for 2025, the Board of Directors has approved a quarterly dividend payment of $1.61 per share to be paid in the month of March, June, September and December, subject to the board ratification each quarter.

[Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations at Copa Holdings]

I'd like to highlight that this maintains last year's dividend payout. The first quarterly payment will be made on March 14 to all shareholders of record as of February 28. Furthermore, during 2024, the company has repurchased $87,000,000 of its ongoing 200,000,000 share repurchase program, which represented approximately 2% of the total outstanding shares as of the end of twenty twenty four. '30 '7 million dollars of the $87,000,000 were executed in the fourth quarter. Finally, turning to our outlook.

[Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations at Copa Holdings]

Consistent with what Pedro shared, we can provide the following guidance for the full year 2025. We expect to increase our capacity in ASMs within a range of 7% to 8% year over year. And we expect to deliver an operating margin within a range of 20% to 22. We are basing our outlook on the following assumptions: load factor of approximately 86.5%, unit revenues of around $0.113 KASMEX fuel of approximately $0.058 and we're expecting an all in fuel price of $2.6 per gallon. Thank you.

[Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations at Copa Holdings]

And now we'll open the call for questions from Ashley.

[Operator]

Thank you so much. Our first question is from Savi Syth with Raymond James. Please proceed.

[Savanthi Syth, Managing Director at Raymond James Financial]

Hey, good morning, everyone, and congratulations, Peter. We look forward to working with you. Just if I might, on the suite details that you shared, it looks like the max still a little bit lower than you thought in August, but a little bit more. Is that kind of the color that Boeing is giving you? And then as you look to 2026, it looks like only six.

[Savanthi Syth, Managing Director at Raymond James Financial]

So curious why the slower delivery expectation and general thoughts on how you're thinking about this capacity growth?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Right. So without making you call Boeing, So they explained the delivery schedule. We're actually okay with the schedule we're getting. So it's 13 aircraft this year, most in the second half of the year. So we'll get two in June and the other 11 in the second half of the year, but many will be in the fourth quarter and at least two of the aircraft are going to fly early in 2026.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

So we could think it's 11 this year and eight in 2026 in terms of the when we're going to activate them. And we feel that's okay in terms of the opportunities we see for additional frequencies and new destinations, we're perfectly fine with that delivery schedule.

[Savanthi Syth, Managing Director at Raymond James Financial]

That's helpful. And just maybe really a follow-up related to that. On the CapEx side, just is the thinking then still for this year mostly unchanged or does that move up? I think the last time it was I think that gross CapEx may be closer to $900,000,000 and cash CapEx of $350,000,000 and is that like a good way to think about next year as well?

[Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations at Copa Holdings]

Hi, it's Ali. Daniel here. So, yes, CapEx for this year, it's Pompeo chain could be a little bit lower between the $850,000,000 range. Cash CapEx, probably around $200,000,000 For next year, it's going to be lower given we have only six deliveries. So that's going to be approximately $450,000,000 next year.

[Savanthi Syth, Managing Director at Raymond James Financial]

Very helpful. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Duane Pfennigwerth with Evercore ISI. Please proceed.

[Duane Pfennigwerth, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI]

Hi, good morning. I wonder if you could speak to the sequential trend in RASM relative to the fourth quarter decline and the prospects for an inflection in the back half of this year?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Okay. So as you know, we give yearly RASM guidance, not quarterly guidance. And but in general terms, our guidance and what we've seen, especially in the second half of twenty twenty four was the impact of currency weakness in our region in Brazil and a few other countries, but also additional capacity, industry capacity in general that includes our own growth and other lines in the market that are relevant to Copa, which are the ones we focus on. And we're assuming kind of the same trend to continue this year, maybe a slightly improvement in the first quarter, but overall pretty much the same trend. So you could say rightly so that there could be a positive inflection point in the second half of the year if everything goes the right way.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

So we are guiding for kind of more of the same and not for a significant recuperation on currencies or strength of demand or capacity slowing down. So but if those things change, yes, the second half could be better.

[Duane Pfennigwerth, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. One moment for our next question please. And it's from the line of Guillermo Mendez with JPMorgan. Please proceed.

[Guilherme Mendes, ED - Equity Research Analyst at JP Morgan]

Hey, thanks everyone and best wishes on to Peter on this new role. Pedro, you mentioned some several times about the, let's say, excessive capacity in some of the regions that you compete potentially impact yields in RASP into this year. Can you please provide more color on which regions or which routes exactly are you seeing more, let's say, overcapacity or tougher competitive environment? Thank you.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Right. So well, usually when we talk about our region, it's of course The Americas where we operate and it includes North America, Central, South And The Caribbean. And it changes obviously, there might be a country in particular, I guess, more capacity at a given time, but it usually comes from the whole region and it's hard to separate by specific countries. But what we have seen is that even though overall industry capacity has been growing somewhere between 510%, maybe in the 6% to 7% rate, which is similar to what our growth what was our growth in 2024. In some markets in particular, like for example, Brazil, Colombia, maybe a little bit in yes, Brazil and Colombia mostly, I would say, maybe Central America also.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

We have seen a capacity growth more close to the 20% range. And that in some cases includes some of our own capacity, I must say.

[Guilherme Mendes, ED - Equity Research Analyst at JP Morgan]

Got it. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Tom Fitzgerald with TD Cowen. Please proceed.

[Tom Fitzgerald, VP - Equity Research at TD Cowen]

Hi. Thanks so much for the time.

[Tom Fitzgerald, VP - Equity Research at TD Cowen]

Would you just mind updating us how you think about managing your inventory and revenue management broadly just given the FX volatility that we've seen in some of your major markets like Brazil or Mexico?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Well, it's the FX volatility we were exposed to last year was higher and the impact to the bottom line greater than what we had seen in a while. I believe the year before 2023 was almost nothing. And this year we're actually off to a better start. We have made up for some of the losses in 2024. It's mostly translational, sorry.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

That was a hybrid of transactional and translational. So it's mostly translational, sorry for that again. And so it depends on our net asset value and our average net asset value. So some of the currencies have strengthened this first month of the year. So some we've made up, but it's very hard to predict.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

We don't really and we I must say we price in dollars. We definitely we price in dollars, but it's sold in the local currency at the dollar exchange rate for that day. But our net asset get impacted in that translation. So we don't really plan for that and I don't think there's much we can do except for example in Brazil where we sell in installments, we do hedge half of our Brazilian sales. So of the loss that you see in our P and L, close to $5,000,000 shows up in a different line, because that's our hedge gain from our Brazilian currency hedge.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

So the net impact is really closer to 28 for the year than 33.

[Tom Fitzgerald, VP - Equity Research at TD Cowen]

Okay. That's really helpful. Thanks so much for that color. And just as a follow-up, what are you hearing from some of your corporate clients and the multinationals in the region? Just how they're thinking about business travel and demand, just given all the noise around tariffs and geopolitics?

[Tom Fitzgerald, VP - Equity Research at TD Cowen]

Thanks again for the time.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Yes. We're very much in intra Latin America, U. S. To Latin America. And what we're seeing, I would say, is in terms of percent of business traffic and our corporate accounts, a flat pretty much right now year over year.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

And we're expecting we're not expecting growth there. We think it's going to remain flat. I mean, there will be growth tied to our capacity, but not in share of revenue. So what we're hearing, it doesn't really change the picture in intra Latin America and U. S.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

To Latin America traffic.

[Operator]

Thank you. One moment for our next question please. And it's from Alberto Valerio with UBS. Please proceed. Alberto, your line is open.

[Alberto Valerio, Director - Equity Research at UBS Group]

Can you hear me now?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Yes. Hi, Alberto. Yes, we hear you well.

[Alberto Valerio, Director - Equity Research at UBS Group]

Hi. Thank you for taking my question. I had one on traffic, the guidance that you guys provide. You just released the traffic for January and become really strong. Remember that we had some issues on grounding last year.

[Alberto Valerio, Director - Equity Research at UBS Group]

But looking forward, the seasonality base, look, the guidance was a little bit conservative. And on this assumption for the year, that is maybe January or January was one off stronger than usual for the month?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Yes. January, it's impacted by the max grounding in January 2024. So and it's a footnote in our traffic release, because of course that 20 something percent ASM growth, it's only because of that, the group grounding in January. But for the year, when we average out that for the whole year, we're guiding to 7% to 8% growth. That's based on the deliveries of the aircraft deliveries that we have scheduled for this year.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

We are not expecting that to change much. And since most of the deliveries are at the end of the year, even if there were additional delays, the impact will be small in our ASM guidance for this year.

[Alberto Valerio, Director - Equity Research at UBS Group]

Okay. And my second one is, I may, it's about the yields. You guys have been performed better than the peers lately. And I'm wondering why lately I'd say like in the past three years after that. And you mentioned that the mix did not change between The U.

[Alberto Valerio, Director - Equity Research at UBS Group]

S. Travelers and the Latimer's travelers. But did change in this long space? We had for corporate more U. S.

[Alberto Valerio, Director - Equity Research at UBS Group]

Travelers that you used to have before pandemic at this moment?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Yes. My answer I meant to say or to refer to the mix between business and leisure and VFR year over year from 2024 to 2025. We're not seeing a change there. From pre pandemic there have been changes and there is more U. S.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Traffic. You're right in that. And we did have a bump up in yields, which was significant right after the pandemic, when there was limited capacity and strong demand. Capacity has caught up with demand pretty much. So right now, we are kind of back right now we're back to 2019 yields in a way.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

But of course our unit costs are much better. So we're delivering much better margins. And since the third quarter in twenty twenty two, we've been delivering margins over 20%, which is what we're guiding to for 2025 again.

[Alberto Valerio, Director - Equity Research at UBS Group]

Fantastic. And welcome Peter.

[Operator]

Thank you. One moment for our next question. It's from the line of Michael Linenberg with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.

[Michael Linenberg, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank]

Oh, yes. Hey, good morning, everyone, and welcome aboard, Peter. I got to tell you, Pedro, you're probably one of the few airlines on this planet that you're seeing 2019 yields, but lower costs. So it's almost as if you're from another place. But with that said, I guess two questions here.

[Michael Linenberg, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank]

When I look at the schedule for Wingo in 2025, it seems like supply is actually running down a bit. And I'm not sure is Wengo what is one airplane is one airplane going into maintenance or something? Are you shrinking that fleet? Or are you just lowering the utilization given the fact that Colombia overall has been an oversupplied market?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Well, two things that have that are going on with Wingo. One is that they might be flying more they are actually flying a little bit more domestic capacity, which is shorter haul. So overall less ASMs and they do have some maintenance. So they will have some aircraft in maintenance, which they do during the low season and reduce their schedules. They adjust their schedules to compensate for maintenance aircraft.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

So that's probably going on also, but they're getting a they're operating nine seven thirty seven-800s and they're getting a tenth seven thirty seven-eight hundred in the second half of the year. And their ASMs overall should be up there for that 10 aircraft and the utilization is not coming up is not coming down. Excuse me. Utilization should be highly I mean slightly up and but anyway, we of course, we don't delay we do not disclose specific Wingo information. And so you're probably looking at their published schedules.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Yes. The changes should just be that. So maybe low season cuts to cover for maintenance, but overall in the year, they will fly more, especially with the tenth aircraft they're getting in the second half of the year.

[Michael Linenberg, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank]

Okay. And then just I guess it drives a follow-up. Low season Colombia, what are those months? We're close to the Equator. I always get a little confused.

[Michael Linenberg, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank]

What would be the low season?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Like right now. Okay.

[Michael Linenberg, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank]

Okay. And

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

you have Easter that is April, good month. And then the second half of the year is usually better than the first half of the year. So there's less less low season in the second half of the year.

[Michael Linenberg, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank]

Okay. And then Wingo, I know you said you don't really provide results, but we know that again it's an oversupplied situation in that market, but we also know Wingo is a lower cost platform. So there may be an incentive even with additional the capacity in the region, there's other markets you can serve with Wingo that it may be there may be a natural incentive to grow Wingo given that it has maybe a better cost structure than Copa mainline. Is that accurate?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Well, it is accurate, not by a bunch by the way. Copa five point eight is pretty competitive. So not by a bunch. We haven't grown Wingo in two years. Because there is that overcapacity.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

They're flowing by one plane and which is not significant. It's about 10% in the second half of the year. And just because of all the dynamics in the Colombian market, lower yields, overcapacity or new capacity and the fact that at Copa Holdings, we love bottom line profits, We just don't do crazy things.

[Michael Linenberg, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank]

Okay. Okay. And now my real follow-up because I know we got down that Wengo rabbit hole. Just on cargo, to see that you're adding another airplane, the tariff situation and global trade and all that notwithstanding, the fact is you must be very pleased with the one airplane willing to double the capacity. How should we think about cargo revenue?

[Michael Linenberg, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank]

Is that doubling over the next couple of years with the second airplane? And can you give us a sense of just like the margins or the profitability on cargo versus pure freighter, I guess I should say, versus your passenger business? Thanks for taking my questions.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Okay, yes, Mike. Well, a few things with cargo. We operate a single seven thirty seven boarding converted freighter. So it's a single claim. Still most of our cargo revenue comes from the bellies of the passenger fleet, of the passenger flight.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

So most of the revenue comes from that. The cargo plane has been very successful. The margins are very high for the cargo plane, so much better than our last few planes flying the less profitable routes. But just one aircraft going to two, so it won't be a significant impact. Our current single freighter is flying over three hundred hours per month on average, which is a ton.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

It's a lot for a single plane. So once we have the two planes, the average hours per plane will not be nearly as high and we'll have a more backup. So it will be profitable. The margins are good, but it's not going to be necessarily a significant impact because overall in the scheme of things is one aircraft out of 120 plus.

[Michael Linenberg, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank]

Okay. And is that one of your airplanes that's being converted or is that coming from the outside?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Actually, that's a good catch. It's coming from the outside. So because of what you said, there's a lot of availability, a lot of tanks were converted and there's not that much market right now. There is in our niche because our freighter is a niche operation, which produces cargo that we also distribute in our passenger flight. So we do have the demand, but there was availability.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

So we're doing an operating lease of a freighter and that way we can keep our passenger aircraft, which we need because of the Boeing delays we all know about.

[Michael Linenberg, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank]

Great. Thanks. Sorry for the long questions, but really thank you very much.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of James Spies with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.

[Jens Spiess, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Yes, hello. Let me congrats on the appointment, Peter. Looking forward to working with you too and meeting you in person. Pedro, I have a question on the VFR in The U. S.

[Jens Spiess, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

We had a Mexican airline mentioning that they saw a bit of weakness since The U. S. The new administration came into office, something related to like immigration concerns. And I was wondering, obviously, you have a very different network, but if you're seeing anything along those lines along your booking curve? And also, yes, let me first start with that.

[Jens Spiess, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Thank you.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

No, we're not. We're not our U. S. Traffic. It has VFR and the VFR seasons, vacations, etcetera.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

It also has year round leisure traffic. And actually, our U. S. Network is doing better than before.

[Jens Spiess, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Okay, perfect. And just one follow-up. In terms of buybacks, I mean, considering where your leverage is and the cash you're generating, do you see any chance of accelerating a bit your buyback program, the pace?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

So we have two ways we return value. We have a dividend policy, which it's usually 40% of the previous year's net income. This year, as we announced in the earnings release yesterday, we're keeping dividends at the same level as last year, which means that it won't be 40% of last year's net income, it will be 44%. And then we have a buyback program of which we also communicated that we have executed 87,000,000 out of the $200,000,000 that is approved. So we have another $113,000,000 available.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

So what we do in terms of your question is that, we look at our dividend policy, we look at our available liquidity taking into account our CapEx needs given that we've had delays in Boeing deliveries. We have more liquidity than that we had that one we had projected what we had projected maybe a year or two years ago. So that's a reason for our buyback program, which is in place. And I expect that buyback program to be finalized or executed throughout this year.

[Jens Spiess, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

Okay, perfect. So the $200,000,000 would be complete this year. Does it have a limit, a time limit?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

There's no time limit, no. Okay. No, there's not a time limit.

[Jens Spiess, Analyst at Morgan Stanley]

All right, great. Thank you.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

You bet.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Daniel McGinsey with Seaport Global. Please proceed.

[Daniel McKenzie, Equity Research Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Hey guys, thanks for the time here. A couple of questions. First off, with respect to growth this year, can you share any perspective on the percent of growth tied to frequencies versus newer markets or just some of the thought process behind where that growth is going perhaps maybe to stronger economies in the region?

[Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations at Copa Holdings]

Hi, Dan. Daniel here. So, yes, so the 7% to 8% growth is around two thirds. It's going to be full year effect as Pedro alluded to and around another 20% is going to be frequencies and markets we fly today and then the rest is some gauge because we have a higher seat count and per aircraft and some new destinations of course.

[Daniel McKenzie, Equity Research Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Okay. And second question here, I guess, Pedro, going back to the earnings overhangs that have been called out over the past year and today, I know you have been through a lot of cycles. And just sticking to what's public in the local news there with respect to the Panamanian and Venezuelan governments. First off, is the Panamanian government working with Venezuela for normalized relations at this point and again whatever is publicly available? And then just on FX, is it as simple as just letting it annualize or are there economic is there an economic growth dynamic that could offset some of that weakness faster than perhaps you would think?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Well, in terms of Venezuela, I'm not aware that there are any conversations to normalize relations. We would like to see that of course, but that's kind of like above our paycheck. And so no, I don't think there's anything going on right now. Hopefully before the year is over, it will be able to return to that very important market where we had service to five cities, 42 flights per week before the sudden cancellation at the July. So I'm hopeful that at some point, but there's no light at the end of the tunnel right now.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

The FX question

[Alberto Valerio, Director - Equity Research at UBS Group]

Yes, I just was asking go ahead.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Yes, can you repeat it?

[Daniel McKenzie, Equity Research Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

Yes, sorry. I was just asking if it's as simple as just letting it annualize before we see an improvement or whether there was economic growth dynamic that could offset some of that FX weakness?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Right. I mean it could it's something that's going to happen at the end of every quarter. So there could be a good guy at the end of this quarter depending on the currencies. But then at the end of the year we'll have the final number.

[Daniel McKenzie, Equity Research Analyst at Seaport Research Partners]

I see. Okay. Thanks for the time guys.

[Operator]

Thank you. And our last question, one moment please. Comes from Stephen Trent with Citi. Please proceed.

[Stephen Trent, Analyst at Citigroup]

Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you very much for the time and Peter as well. Welcome and looking forward to working with you.

[Peter Donkersloot, CFO at Copa Holdings]

Thank you.

[Stephen Trent, Analyst at Citigroup]

Kit, one or two for me. First, I was curious, when you guys think about your jet fuel, tariffs and expense, I know you don't service like Brazil domestic where jet fuel kerosene is super high, but do you have any sort of outlier markets where your jet fuel kerosene is sort of measurably more expensive than sort of the general level?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

I think what's important, Stephen, is that we're not at a disadvantage anywhere. And there isn't like a market I mean, the one market that will be critical for us is our home market, our hub market here in Panama. But Panama is a competitive market due to geographic location. The logistics of Panama, we are a different shipment and point and there's a lot of storage capacity and oil companies. So we are not at a disadvantage where it's most important.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

We're actually in a competitive market. So we're okay in that sense.

[Stephen Trent, Analyst at Citigroup]

Great. Pedro, appreciate that. And maybe another kind of a follow-up to what Dan was asking. What do we think about sort of the geopolitical changes or political changes in The Americas? And one thing, people are kind of looking at are M and A and alliances and what have you.

[Stephen Trent, Analyst at Citigroup]

And I know you and United Airlines have a very good one. Do you see any possibility to make any pivots here in terms of how much you could collaborate with them or maybe there are additional layers you could add to that today versus what you could have done over the previous four years perhaps?

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Yes, we have as you mentioned, we have a very strong relationship with United that goes back twenty five years from the continental days. And I think it's pretty complete in that we co share, we have total reciprocity in our frequent flyer programs. We even at times can plan capacity additions like the San Francisco PTY service that United is going to start in May and it's going to connect their strong Asian network with Panama and from here we'll connect it with South America. So it's pretty it's not a JBA or anything like that, but we're very happy with the relationship. So I think that's really fine and in a good place.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

In terms of some of the other stuff that's going on, we're always happy with where we are. We cooperate with European carriers. We cooperate with the Brazilian carriers. In that sense, we tend to do what's best for the business and in a very open minded way knowing that to cooperate is a two way street. And we try to make others better and same for ourselves, especially with airlines we do not compete against and that we can be complementary.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

I don't know if I'm answering your question or I'm going against around circles, but you can be more specific if you want, Stephen.

[Stephen Trent, Analyst at Citigroup]

No, no, that was great Pedro. Just sort of wanted to get the high level view on that. That was perfect. Thank you.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. And this concludes our Q and A session. And I will turn it back to Pedro Hellbrunn for his final comments.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

Okay. Thank you all. As always, thanks for participating in our quarterly call for your continued support. Peter will start March 10 and he'll be very available of course and he knows Copa very well. He's been with us five years and I know you will enjoy working with him.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

And of course, Daniel, which did an excellent backup to Jose today. Thank you, Daniel. You know Daniel very well, so he's also available as I am myself. And maybe just to emphasize, as I've mentioned in previous calls, we've been preparing for years to be a more competitive carrier, to be able to compete with success under any manageable condition of course. And that's why we've been able to lower unit cost.

[Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO at Copa Holdings]

We've had total focus in lowering our unit cost and strengthening our network and having a product that is today a great advantage for coal power lines in this whole region. And that's why we've been able to deliver strong results. It's something that we're confident we can continue doing in 2025 and beyond. So thank you all and we're here and see you in the next call.

[Operator]

And ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation. That concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.

Participants

Executives

• Daniel Tapia, Director of Investor Relations
• Pedro Heilbron, Director & CEO
• Peter Donkersloot, CFO

Analysts

• Savanthi Syth, Managing Director at Raymond James Financial
• Duane Pfennigwerth, Senior Managing Director at Evercore ISI
• Guilherme Mendes, ED - Equity Research Analyst at JP Morgan
• Tom Fitzgerald, VP - Equity Research at TD Cowen
• Alberto Valerio, Director - Equity Research at UBS Group
• Michael Linenberg, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank
• Jens Spiess, Analyst at Morgan Stanley
• Daniel McKenzie, Equity Research Analyst at Seaport Research Partners
• Stephen Trent, Analyst at Citigroup