Copa Holdings, S.A. CPA, based in Panama City, Panama, is gaining from upbeat passenger volumes. The latest positive update from the Latin American carrier came when it reported robust traffic numbers for March 2026 on the back of upbeat air travel demand. Driven by high passenger volumes, revenue passenger miles (RPM: a measure of air traffic) improved on a year-over-year basis in March.
To match the demand swell, CPA is increasing its capacity. In March, available seat miles (a measure of capacity) increased 14.8% year over year. RPM improved 15.3% year over year. Since traffic growth outpaced capacity expansion, the load factor (the percentage of seats filled by passengers) rose to 86.7% from 86.3% in March 2025.
CPA currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
March 2026 Traffic of Other Airline Companies
Apart from Copa Holdings, other airline companies that have reported traffic numbers for March 2026 are LATAM Airlines Group (LTM and Ryanair Holdings RYAAY.
LATAM Airlines
LATAM Airlines reported a 9.3% year-over-year increase in consolidated capacity, measured in available seat-kilometers (ASK). The uptick was driven by a 12.5% increase in capacity in LATAM Airlines Brazil’s domestic market, coupled with a 10.9% surge in international operations, which includes the launch of operations to a new destination in Europe with the São Paulo (GRU), Brazil – Amsterdam, Netherlands route.
LTM’s consolidated traffic, measured in revenue passenger-kilometers (RPK), grew 11.9% year over year, owing to growth across all segments. LATAM Airlines Brazil’s domestic market witnessed a 15.6% year-over-year increase, followed by a 12.8% surge internationally. Demand in the domestic markets of the affiliates in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru reported growth of 3%.
Since traffic outpaced capacity expansion, the consolidated load factor for March 2026 came in at 83.8%, up 1.9 percentage points from March 2025, reflecting growth across all segments. This brings the first quarter’s load factor to 85.3%.
In March 2026, LATAM Airlines transported 7.6 million passengers, an increase of 9% year over year. So far this year, LATAM Airlines has transported 22.8 million passengers across its network, reflecting an increase of 9.1% year over year.
Ryanair Holdings
European carrier, Ryanair reported solid traffic numbers for March 2026, driven by upbeat air-travel demand. The number of passengers transported on Ryanair flights was 15.8 million in March 2026, reflecting a 5% year-over-year increase. Apart from a year-over-year surge, RYAAY’s traffic in March was much more than the February reading of 13.3 million and the January reading of 12.7 million, highlighting continued momentum from the beginning of the year.
Ryanair’s load factor remained flat year over year at 93% in March 2026, reflecting stable and consistent demand for the carrier’s services. But it improved sequentially from the load factor of 92% reported in February 2026 and 91% reported in January 2026.
RYAAY operated more than 88,000 flights in March 2026. This marks an improvement from 75,000 flights operated in February 2026 and 73,000 flights operated in January2026, reflecting expanded capacity to meet strong passenger demand.
We would like to remind investors that Ryanair carried 200.2 million passengers (traffic up 9% year over year) in its fiscal year ending March 2025, positioning itself as the first European airline to reach 200 million passengers in a single year. As a result, RYAAY is now the world’s leading low-fare airline in terms of passenger traffic, with low fares and reduced costs acting as the main catalyst. During the first nine months of fiscal 2026, RYAAY’s traffic grew 4% year over year to 166.5 million passengers.
Given the aforesaid encouraging backdrops, Ryanair has unveiled its raised traffic outlook for fiscal 2026 (concurrent with its third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings release on Jan. 26, 2026). Ryanair now expects its fiscal 2026 traffic to grow 4% to 208 million passengers (prior view: 207 million), owing to earlier than expected Boeing BA deliveries and solid demand during the first nine months of fiscal 2026.
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