Pedro Heilbron
Analyst · Maxim
Thank you, Joe. Good morning to all and thank you for participating in our fourth quarter and full year 2011 earnings call. I would like to begin by congratulating our co-workers for their efforts in delivering a strong fourth quarter and a great year, one in which we delivered an operating margin of 21% and outstanding earnings growth. As always, our team began the year with an ambitious set of goals and objectives aimed at consolidating the competitive advantage of our hub as the best choice for intra-Latin American travel and improving the appeal of our products and our passengers’ travel experience, all while delivering world-class financial results. I’m happy to inform that with the support of a great team, our objectives were accomplished, and in many cases, surpassed. Among our main highlights for 2011, Copa Holdings delivered another year of strong growth with consolidated capacity increasing 22% and traffic not far behind, growing at a very healthy 21%. Strong demand trends and healthy yields led to exceptional revenue growth, which enable us to increase our unit revenues every quarter throughout the year. This along with the CASM ex-fuel fuel improvement led to operating margin expansion despite much higher fuel prices. In terms of our network expansion, 2011 was an outstanding year as Copa Airlines launched service to nine new cities. In June, we started service to Toronto, Brasilia, Porto Alegre and Nassau; and this past December to Chicago, Monterrey, Asunción, Montego Bay and Cúcuta. We’re pleased to say that these new routes are performing as expected and in many cases have exceeded our initial expectations. In June, Copa Airlines transitioned from a four to a six-bank hub structure. The implementation of the six-bank hub has been a huge success, which is allowing us to better utilize the Tocumen Airport infrastructure, personnel and equipment, as well as enabling us to provide our passengers with more and better flight options and significant schedule improvements. Also during the year, our team once again delivered excellent operational performance as Copa Airlines on-time performance came in at 90.4% and 89.5% on a consolidated basis. This, along with a flight completion factor of 99.6%, place us once again among the best and most reliable airlines in the industry. With regards to our fleet, we ended the year with a consolidated fleet of 73 aircraft. As Copa received 10 new 737-800s, most of which included a 2% fuel burn improvement. Other important highlights for 2011 include the introduction of the Boeing Sky Interior in our new aircraft, the opening of new Copa Clubs or VIP lounges in Santo Domingo and Guatemala, and introduction of our mobile website and electronic boarding passes. So we continue to deliver what our passengers expect from us – a superior network for intra-Latin American travel with more choices, better schedules and a world class product. Now, looking at the main highlights for our fourth quarter. Consolidated passenger traffic increased almost 16%, led by our international traffic which expanded 21%. Strong overall demand resulted in a healthy revenue environment as both yields and RASM came in higher on a year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter basis. This healthy revenue performance along with a year-over-year reduction in a fuel unit cost allowed us to report operating earnings of $106 million, which represented an operating margin of 21% for the quarter. This along with great operational performance as well as the launch of five new destinations in December marked a strong ending to an exceptional year. We’re also having a great start to 2012. As you can see from our recently released January traffic statistics, which show international traffic growth of 26%, strong demand trends continue this quarter, and hopefully, the rest of the year. Operationally, we are excited about our 2012 expansion plan. In fact, we have already announced four new destinations which will start next June. They are Las Vegas, our seventh destination in the United States; Recife, our seventh Brazilian City; Liberia, our second destination in Costa Rica; and Curaçao, our thirteenth Caribbean destination. With these new cities, our network will cover 63 destinations in 29 countries. By far, the most complete and convenient network for intra-Latin America travel. Additionally, as part of our expansion plan, we will continue increasing daily frequencies in important market. For instance, Medellin, Colombia increased to five times a day, Cancun goes from four times a day – goes up to four times a day, and Quito via (inaudible) Cartagena grow from two to three daily frequencies. Our growth to the new destination and frequencies will be made easier by last year’s transition to a six-bank hub and the soon-to-be-operational (inaudible) at Tocumen Airport. These initiatives, among others, will enable our future network expansion and will increase our hub dominance in the years to the come. Our expansion plans for 2012 call for another year of double-digit capacity growth as ASMs are growing 22% year-over-year. However, in terms of departures, we’re growing around 12%. Nevertheless, most of the additional capacity for 2012, more than 60%, will be the full year effect of flights we added in 2011. On the economic front, we expect 2012 to be another good year for our region and for Panama. Latin America is expected to grow close to 4% for the year and Panama is expected to grow close to 7%. This should have a positive impact on the demand for our services as we continue to expand and strengthen even more our network dominance for intra-Latin America travel. To summarize, we’re very pleased by our fourth quarter and full year results. Our network continues to grow and we’re implementing many initiatives to strengthen even more our Hub of the Americas. Our team continues to deliver world class operational performance. And the regional economic environment remains strong and we’re seeing a favorable demand environment. So we are well positioned strategically, financially, and operationally to take advantage of opportunities ahead, while continuing to deliver world-class results. Thank you. Now, I’ll turn it over to Victor who will go over our fourth quarter and full year results.