Copa Holdings reports net income of $104.4 million for 4Q and $310.4 million for 2011

Copa Airlines Boeing 737-8V3 WL HP-1534CMP (msn 35125) (visitpanama.com) CUN (Rurik Enriquez), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Copa Holdings (Panama City) reported net income of $104.4 million for 4Q11 or earnings per share (EPS) of $2.36, as compared to net income of $94.4 million or EPS of $2.15 in 4Q10.

Excluding special items, Copa Holdings reported an adjusted net income of $85.3 million, representing a 3.1% increase over adjusted net income of $82.8 million in 4Q10.

Net income for full year 2011 reached $310.4 million or EPS of $6.98 , compared to $241.1 million or EPS of $5.48 for full year 2010.

Excluding special items, however, Copa Holdings would have reported an adjusted net income of $314.1 million compared to $248.2 for full year 2010, representing an increase of 26.5%.

Operating income for 4Q11 came in at $106.1 million, representing an increase of 13.0% over operating income of $93.9 million in 4Q10.

Operating margin for 4Q11 came in at 21.0%, or 1.8p.p. below 4Q10.

The Company reported operating income of $384.7 million for full year 2011, representing an increase of 32.8% over operating income of $289.7 million in 2010.

Operating margin for full year 2011 came in at 21.0%, as compared to an operating margin of 20.5% in 2010.

Total revenues for 4Q11 increased 22.7% to $504.6 million. Yield per passenger mile increased 7.4% to 17.7 cents and operating revenue per available seat mile (RASM) came in at 13.9 cents, or 0.8% over 4Q10.

For 4Q11 consolidated passenger traffic grew 15.6%, led by international traffic growth which expanded a robust 21.0%. At the same time consolidated capacity grew 21.7%, led by a 28.3% increase in international capacity. As a result, consolidated load factor for the quarter decreased 3.9 percentage points to 74.9%.

For full year 2011, consolidated load factor came in at 76.4%, down 0.5 percentage points over 2010, on 21.9% capacity growth.

Operating cost per available seat mile (CASM) increased 3.2%, from 10.6 cents in 4Q10 to 11.0 cents in 4Q11. CASM, excluding fuel costs, decreased 4.6% from 7.2 cents in 4Q10 to 6.9 cents in 4Q11, mostly as a result of the dilution effect of additional capacity and a longer average length of haul.

Cash, short term and long term investments ended 2011 at US$611.0 million, representing 33% of the last twelve months’ revenues.

During the fourth quarter, Copa Airlines took delivery of two Boeing 737-800s. As a result, Copa Holdings ended the year with a consolidated fleet of 73 aircraft, composed of 20 Boeing 737-700s, 27 Boeing 737-800s and 26 Embraer-190s.

For 2011, Copa Holdings reported on-time performance of 89.5% and a flight-completion factor of 99.6%, maintaining its position among the best in the industry.