Copa Holdings posted a Q3 net profit of $57.7m, down 55% from the same period last year—the result of rising fuel costs and weakened currencies in Brazil and Argentina. Panama-based Copa is the parent of Copa Airlines and Copa Airlines Colombia. The company also operates Wingo-branded ultra-LCC flights out of Colombia. The company reported $672.4m in total revenue for the quarter, up 2.1% year-over-year on capacity growth of 6.6%. Expenses were up 11.2% to $598.1m, driven by a 39.2% jump in fuel costs from the same period last year. CASM increased 4.3%, leading to a 4.8% slide in PRASM compared to 3Q 2017. Passenger yield declined 3.3%. Copa’s operating income for the quarter was $74.3m, a 38.4% decrease from the year-earlier period. The company’s operating margin was 11%, compared to 18.3% a year ago. “We were not able to compensate for the additional fuel expense in the third quarter. We firmly believe this is a temporary situation and are confident in the long-term value and potential of this market, the strength of our business model and our ability to return to higher margins,” CEO and director Pedro Heilbron said.<br/>
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Copa Airlines CE Pedro Heilbron expects a planned three-way joint venture with Avianca and United Airlines to go into effect in end-2020 "at best", underlining the several rounds of regulatory approvals needed for the deal. Negotiations among the three airlines are still ongoing and have not concluded, Heilbron pointed out on an earnings call on 15 November. "Hopefully that will happen before the end of the year and it's going to then take at least a year-and-a-half to get it all approved especially in Panama, Colombia, and the US," said Heilbron. "So this will at best enter into effect towards the end of 2020." In August, Copa emerged as the third airline involved in joint venture discussions between Avianca and United, which were made public in early 2017. Heilbron said that Copa had been part of the talks since day one, "but chose not to make it public thinking we were going to finalise the three-way negotiations much sooner". <br/>
A United Airlines plane veered partly off a taxiway at the Denver airport, but no injuries were reported. Denver International Airport spokeswoman Mindy Crane says the incident occurred Saturday evening. She says United Flight 1941 from Tucson, Arizona, had landed and was headed toward the concourse when the plane taxied partway onto a grassy area. The plane stopped, and buses took passengers to the concourse. Crane says snow had fallen Saturday but runways were clear at the time. She says the incident is under investigation.<br/>
A Singapore Airlines flight which left Changi Airport early Monday morning made a U-turn less than an hour after take-off, after pilots reported a drop in cabin pressure to air traffic controllers. It is not known what caused this to happen on the Boeing 777-300ER plane. According to FlightRadar24, Flight SQ336 bound for Paris had climbed to 24,000 feet and was over Malaysia when it turned back towards Singapore. Oxygen masks were deployed and the aircraft descended to 6,000 feet, The Straits Times understands. The aircraft had to circle for about an hour to dump fuel before it could land. Confirming the incident, an SIA spokesman said there were 234 passengers and 17 crew on board the aircraft. No injuries were reported. Following an aircraft change, the flight departed Singapore at 6am and is scheduled to arrive in Paris at 12.17pm (Paris time), SIA said.<br/>