Copa Airlines plans lower capacity growth in 2016 after weathering tough conditions during 2015

No Latin American airline has escaped the region's ailing economy during 2015, not even the perennially strong company Copa. Although Copa has remained profitable, its net income and margins have fallen, as it works to withstand the effects a weak economy is having on demand in the region.

Copa believes 2016 holds the possibility for slight improvement in Latin America but is wisely forecasting capacity growth below 2015 levels, and is working to redeploy capacity to more promising geographies, eliminating capacity from unviable routes.

Although Copa is facing stiff headwinds in many regions where it operates, the airline is making logical moves by reducing its capacity to a fraction of the growth that it has posted during the last few years. The weak economies in Latin America show no signs of major improvement and the region's general outlook for 2016 only points to a modest recovery.