Copa Airlines in grip of Latin America’s super strict travel rules

Copa Airlines was essentially grounded for almost five months last year. Flights resumed in Q4, as Panama eased its travel restrictions, but the resurgent virus and fear of new variants has quashed demand since December. Copa’s December capacity was 27% of the airline’s December 2019 capacity, and Q1 capacity so far has been about 40% of 2019. But February and March, historically a weak period, could see demand taper off even further as the new Covid-19 outbreaks cause countries Copa serves to clamp down on travel, CEO Pedro Heilbron told analysts during the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 earnings call on Feb. 11. The latter point has made Copa’s and other Latin American carriers’ recovery more difficult. Travel restrictions and quarantine requirements change frequently, with little warning, making forward planning a headache. Heilbron said Copa is hopeful that wider acceptance of testing will help ease some of these restrictions. Copa is down to a handful of weekly flights to Argentina, twice weekly flights to Havana. Flights to Venezuela were grounded for almost a month, Heilbron said.<br/>