Copa Holdings SA  (CPA) Trade Now »     Rate CPA  -  Discuss CPA  -  Add to Watch List        

With oil prices going through the roof, it is nice to see an airline generate some decent profits. Copa Holdings (CPA) is the parent of Panama based Copa Airlines and Columbia based Aero Republica. Earnings for Q1, 2008 were 91¢ per share compared to $1.12 for the same quarter a year ago (See Transcript). As one could easily guess, higher fuel prices put a dent in the earnings, with average fuel costs 35% higher for the quarter. Other revenue numbers showed some nice growth (all of the numbers are YoY quarter growth):<!---->

I am not a big fan of airline stocks. As long as I have been watching stocks (30 years), outside of Southwest Airlines (LUV), they seem to spend more time losing money than making it. These are business with huge overhead costs that think nothing of slashing fares to win a bidding war or pick up a few points of market share.

When I took a closer look at Copa Holdings, Inc. (CPA), I found an airline company that actually seems to make good profits and the valuation looks pretty nice at these levels.