Panama’s Copa Airlines has cut four destinations from its network and again pushed back fleet growth plans due to a shortage of new jets from Boeing.
“Due to Boeing delivery delays, the arrival of our last two aircraft of the year was postponed by a few months,” Copa chief executive Pedro Heilbron said on 21 November during the airline’s third-quarter earnings call. “We are temporarily pulling out of four markets… The reason we are doing that is also tied to aircraft deliveries.”
The delivery delays come as no surprise, as Boeing’s 737 production was shut down for nearly eight weeks until early November due to a machinists’ strike. The strike was among several production disruptions that kept Boeing from hitting its delivery targets this year.
As an all-737 operator, Copa’s ability to achieve its business objectives depends heavily on the success of the US manufacturer.
Heilbron says Copa received one 737 Max 8 – its first of the type – from Boeing during the third quarter and that it ended the period with 110 jets in its fleet, including the single Max 8, 32 737 Max 9s, 67 737-800s, nine 737-700s and one 737-800 Freighter.
Heilbron expects Copa will receive another two jets – both Max 8s – from Boeing before year end. An updated schedule from Boeing calls for Copa to receive another 11 Max 8s in 2025. If Boeing makes good on that schedule, Copa expects it will end next year with 123 jets in its fleet.
But the plan is far from certain. “This delivery schedule has production ramp up assumptions that will need to materialise, so actual aircraft deliveries could change,” Heilbron says.
He adds that aircraft shortages recently prompted Copa to stop flying to four destinations: Tulum International in Mexico, Felipe Angeles International near Mexico City, Armenia in Colombia and Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic.
“We should be back before the end of 2025,” Heilbron says of those airports.
Fleet troubles aside, Copa turned a $146 million profit in the third quarter, down 22% year on year, with $855 million in operating revenue, down 1.5% from its revenue in the third quarter last year.
The company’s third-quarter results were also impacted by halting flights this year to Venezuela, reportedly due to diplomatic tension and domestic-Venezuelan unrest. Those flights have not yet resumed.