COVID-19. Copa Airlines: attempting to determine its optimal size

Panama's Copa Holdings entered the crisis spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic in better shape than some of its peers in Latin America, but the company still faces challenging times. And as a result, Copa is joining airlines worldwide in attempting to build ample liquidity at the same time as contemplating its future size in a post pandemic world.

Similarly to many other airlines, Copa could emerge from the crisis as a smaller company, and the airline is already taking steps in that direction by outlining its evaluation of whittling its fleet down to two types - Boeing 737-800s and the 737 MAX.

In the short term, Copa is planning to restart operations on 1-Jun-2020, offering just a fraction of the capacity it had originally aimed to deploy during that period. The company aims to build back up slowly over the rest of 2020, but its operations will continue to be significantly reduced, year-on-year.