Copa Holdings, S.A. (CPA), air service provider through its operating subsidiaries Copa Airlines and Aero Republica, Wednesday reported a 9.3% increase in passenger traffic on an 18% increase in capacity for March 2009.
For the month of March 2009, Copa Holdings' system-wide passenger traffic or Revenue Passenger Miles - RPM increased 9.3% to 584.7 million from 535.1 million RPM from the same month last year, while ASM or available seat miles increased 18.0% to 828.0 from 701.5 ASM in the corresponding month last year.
System load factor for March 2009, however, declined 5.7 percentage points to 70.6% from 76.3% in March 2008.
Copa Airlines' passenger traffic for March 2009 increased 9.8% to 512.0 million ASM from 466.4 million ASM in the same month last year, while capacity increased 19.8% to 696.4 million RPM from 581.5 million RPM in March last year. This resulted in decline in load factor by 6.7 percentage points to 73.5% from 80.2% in the same month a year ago.
Aero Republica passenger traffic for March 2009 increased 5.7% to 72.7 million RPM from 68.8 million RPM in the same month a year ago, while capacity increased 9.6% to 131.6 million ASM from 120.1 million ASM. Load factor for the month dropped 2.0 percentage points to 55.2% from 57.2% in the same month last year.
CPA closed Wednesday's trading at $30.69, up $1.43 or 4.89% on a volume of 378k shares on the NYSE. In the after hours, stock lost $0.02 or 0.05%, to trade at 30.67.
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