Copa Holdings, S.A. (CPA Quick QuoteCPA - Free Report) reported impressive traffic figures for July 2018. Consolidated traffic (measured in revenue passenger miles or RPMs) came in at 2 billion, up 5.3% from the year-ago figure.

On a year-over-year basis, consolidated capacity (or available seat miles/ASMs) expanded 4.6% to 2.3 billion. Consolidated load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) inched up 0.7 percentage points (pp) to 88.3% in July, as traffic growth outpaced capacity expansion.

At the end of the first seven months of 2018, Copa Holdings generated RPMs of 12.6 billion (up 10.6% year over year) and ASMs of 15 billion (up 9.6%). Load factor registered a rise of 1.2 pp year over year to 84%.

Recently, the Latin American carrier was in the news for second-quarter 2018 earnings report released on Aug 8. The carrier disappointed investors and reported lower-than-expected earnings per share (EPS) and revenues. RPM and ASM rose 13% and 11.2%, respectively, year over year. Load factor rose 1.3 pp to 83.5% as traffic growth outweighed capacity expansion.

Copa Holdings, which competes with the likes of GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. , Azul S.A. (AZUL Quick QuoteAZUL - Free Report) and LATAM Airlines Group S.A. (LTM Quick QuoteLTM - Free Report) in the Latin American aviation space, is benefiting from the strong demand for air travel.

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