# Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación (VOLARA.MX)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/VOLARA.MX

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:45:34.333Z. Financial observations: FY2018–FY2026.

Listing currency: MXN. Reporting currency: USD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: MXN 11.15 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- 4 revenue declines in the last 10 years (informational)

- more than 2 net loss years

- operating margin variation exceeds 0.35

- Financial history: 9 years

- Years with declining revenue: 4

- Years with a net loss: 5

- Operating margin variation: 2.49×

Chart: Operating margin; fiscal year observations.

- FY2018: -0.05×

- FY2019: 0.12×

- FY2020: -0.15×

- FY2021: 0.19×

- FY2022: 0.02×

- FY2023: 0.06×

- FY2024: 0.12×

- FY2025: 0.03×

- LTM to Jun 2026: 0.00×

### moat: fail

- ROIC median below threshold

- ROIC worst years below threshold (more than 1 bad year allowed)

- Recent gross margin fell 10.2pp below the typical margin (limit 4pp)

- ROIC, median of available years: 3.9%

- ROIC, second-lowest year: -6.1%

- Typical minus recent gross margin: 10.2 pp

- Typical gross margin (annual median): 16.0%

- Recent gross margin (lower of latest and 3-year median): 5.7%

- Years with nonpositive capital: 0

- Capital spending / revenue: 11.4%

- ROIC including acquisitions, ten-year median: -16.6%

Chart: ROIC excluding acquisitions; fiscal year observations.

- FY2018: -17.4%

- FY2019: 6.8%

- FY2020: -6.1%

- FY2021: 14.1%

- FY2022: 1.4%

- FY2023: 5.5%

- FY2024: 9.1%

- FY2025: 2.3%

### economics: fail

- owner earnings cash conversion below threshold

- Owner earnings / net income, 5-yr: -3.26×

- Cash conversion uses consolidated totals: No

- Owner earnings, five-year total: -$6.9B

- Net income, five-year total: $2.1B

- Return on incremental invested capital: >100%

- Working capital / revenue, annual change: -0.7 pp

Chart: Annual owner cash / profit; fiscal year observations.

- FY2021: -2.34×

- FY2022: 16.93×

- FY2023: -72.30×

- FY2024: -3.90×

- FY2025: 3.79×

### management: pass

- Historical market-dollar context (not the management verdict): 2018 to 2025 (7 years)

- buybacks unrelated to price (informational)

- ROIC first 3 years vs last 3 years: -6.1% vs 5.5%

- Per-share earnings: -0.68 to 0.01 (three-year endpoint medians)

- Management verdict uses per-share economic progress: Yes

- Ordinary dilution, 5-year annual growth: 2.9%

- Market cap gain: $425M

- Cumulative retained earnings: $1.8B

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 2.9%

- $1 test, starting fiscal year: FY2018

- $1 test, ending fiscal year: FY2025

- Per-share value change: $0.68

- Per-share value, starting three-year median: -$0.68

- Per-share value, ending three-year median: $0.01

- Buybacks concentrated in cheaper years (correlation): -0.21

- Average buyback yield: 3.7%

- Buyback history: 8 years

- Debt-funded buybacks: No

- ROIC, first three-year median: -6.1%

- ROIC, last three-year median: 5.5%

Chart: Earnings per share; fiscal year observations.

- FY2018: -$0.68

- FY2019: $2.65

- FY2020: -$4.31

- FY2021: $1.83

- FY2022: -$0.03

- FY2023: $0.01

- FY2024: $0.11

- FY2025: -$0.09

### accounting: pass

- Sloan accruals: -15.1%

- Receivables to sales index (DSRI): 1.33×

- Restructuring years, last five: 0

- Stock compensation / operating cash flow: 0.8%

- Earnings backed by cash: Yes

- Accounting red flags: 0

- Goodwill and intangibles / equity: 0.15×

Chart: Sloan accruals; fiscal year observations.

- FY2018: -31.2%

- FY2019: -10.9%

- FY2020: -12.7%

- FY2021: -16.7%

- FY2022: -14.3%

- FY2023: -14.0%

- FY2024: -16.9%

- FY2025: -15.1%

## Holders

## Price story

Down 71% since Feb 2022 · sales +8.5%

Story as of 2026-10-16T10:00:13.443Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

### Sales · FY2025–2026

sales +8.5%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2018: $27B 

- FY2019: $35B 

- FY2020: $22B 

- FY2021: $45B 

- FY2022: $2.8B 

- FY2023: $3.3B 

- FY2024: $3.1B 

- FY2025: $3.0B 

- FY2026: $3.3B 

### Gross margin · FY2025

gross margin 5.7%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2018: 3.7% 

- FY2019: 18.9% 

- FY2021: 25.7% 

- FY2022: 8.6% 

- FY2023: 15.5% 

- FY2024: 16.4% 

- FY2025: 5.7% 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in airlines; annual sales are USD 3 billion.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:45:34.333Z); FY2025: revenue 3037516000; grossProfit 173844000; margin = grossProfit / revenue.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); VOLARA.MX: Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación, S.A.B. de C.V., through its subsidiary, Concesionaria Vuela Compañía de Aviación, S.A.P.I. de C.V., provides air transportation services for passengers, cargo, and mail in Mexico and internationally. The company operates approximately 550 daily flights on routes connecting 44 cities in Mexico, 22 cities in the United States, 4 cities in Central America, and 2 cities in South America. It also offers travel agency, share administration trust, pre-delivery payments financing, aircraft administration trust, and loyalty program, as well as specialized and aeronautical technical services. The company leases 151 aircraft and 14 spare engines. Controladora Vuela Compañía de Aviación, S.A.B. de C.V. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico.

### Why customers stay

Margins ranged from 5.7% to 16.4% during 2023–25; it earns 3.9% on its capital.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:45:34.333Z); FY2023: grossProfit / revenue = 15.5%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:45:34.333Z); FY2024: grossProfit / revenue = 16.4%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:45:34.333Z); FY2025: grossProfit / revenue = 5.7%.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:45:34.333Z); 8-year return on capital observations [[2018,-0.17357277114869407],[2019,0.06825492064769281],[2020,-0.06090750575748416],[2021,0.14066332886993516],[2022,0.013609916915294321],[2023,0.05533981727339703],[2024,0.09136968616697136],[2025,0.023290842659475692]]; median 0.03931532996643636. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid no dividends in 5 years; bought back USD 4.7 million of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:45:34.333Z); Dividend observations: [[2018,0],[2019,0],[2020,0],[2021,0],[2022,0]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:45:34.333Z); FY2025: cash repurchases 4699000 USD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 1.4% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); VOLARA.MX SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 1.374 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price is 0.2 times annual sales; cash earnings are negative.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:45:34.333Z); Closing price 11.15 MXN; reporting-to-trading FX 18.44337882700111; FY2025 annual sales per share 2.642105842754007; price multiple 0.22881483028319652. FY2025 cash earnings/share -0.34243007453427. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (MXN per share)

- 2016-10: MXN 36.10 per share

- 2016-11: MXN 30.30 per share

- 2016-12: MXN 31.01 per share

- 2017-01: MXN 28.29 per share

- 2017-02: MXN 24.41 per share

- 2017-03: MXN 26.17 per share

- 2017-04: MXN 23.85 per share

- 2017-05: MXN 24.34 per share

- 2017-06: MXN 26.55 per share

- 2017-07: MXN 24.56 per share

- 2017-08: MXN 22.49 per share

- 2017-09: MXN 21.58 per share

- 2017-10: MXN 19.54 per share

- 2017-11: MXN 17.01 per share

- 2017-12: MXN 15.73 per share

- 2018-01: MXN 15.93 per share

- 2018-02: MXN 16.78 per share

- 2018-03: MXN 14.65 per share

- 2018-04: MXN 11.69 per share

- 2018-05: MXN 10.30 per share

- 2018-06: MXN 10.10 per share

- 2018-07: MXN 13.68 per share

- 2018-08: MXN 13.96 per share

- 2018-09: MXN 14.06 per share

- 2018-10: MXN 12.42 per share

- 2018-11: MXN 13.02 per share

- 2018-12: MXN 10.48 per share

- 2019-01: MXN 14.28 per share

- 2019-02: MXN 16.49 per share

- 2019-03: MXN 16.51 per share

- 2019-04: MXN 17.25 per share

- 2019-05: MXN 16.59 per share

- 2019-06: MXN 18.00 per share

- 2019-07: MXN 18.78 per share

- 2019-08: MXN 17.76 per share

- 2019-09: MXN 19.67 per share

- 2019-10: MXN 20.88 per share

- 2019-11: MXN 20.73 per share

- 2019-12: MXN 19.78 per share

- 2020-01: MXN 24.65 per share

- 2020-02: MXN 20.06 per share

- 2020-03: MXN 8.37 per share

- 2020-04: MXN 11.87 per share

- 2020-05: MXN 10.94 per share

- 2020-06: MXN 12.01 per share

- 2020-07: MXN 12.18 per share

- 2020-08: MXN 17.67 per share

- 2020-09: MXN 16.02 per share

- 2020-10: MXN 16.61 per share

- 2020-11: MXN 21.12 per share

- 2020-12: MXN 24.77 per share

- 2021-01: MXN 23.10 per share

- 2021-02: MXN 31.50 per share

- 2021-03: MXN 29.13 per share

- 2021-04: MXN 32.91 per share

- 2021-05: MXN 34.53 per share

- 2021-06: MXN 38.18 per share

- 2021-07: MXN 44.00 per share

- 2021-08: MXN 40.06 per share

- 2021-09: MXN 45.25 per share

- 2021-10: MXN 37.45 per share

- 2021-11: MXN 32.06 per share

- 2021-12: MXN 36.74 per share

- 2022-01: MXN 36.64 per share

- 2022-02: MXN 39.00 per share

- 2022-03: MXN 36.34 per share

- 2022-04: MXN 32.73 per share

- 2022-05: MXN 30.72 per share

- 2022-06: MXN 20.70 per share

- 2022-07: MXN 19.97 per share

- 2022-08: MXN 17.98 per share

- 2022-09: MXN 14.23 per share

- 2022-10: MXN 16.84 per share

- 2022-11: MXN 19.15 per share

- 2022-12: MXN 16.31 per share

- 2023-01: MXN 21.02 per share

- 2023-02: MXN 21.71 per share

- 2023-03: MXN 22.20 per share

- 2023-04: MXN 21.18 per share

- 2023-05: MXN 24.40 per share

- 2023-06: MXN 23.97 per share

- 2023-07: MXN 20.14 per share

- 2023-08: MXN 17.00 per share

- 2023-09: MXN 11.85 per share

- 2023-10: MXN 10.28 per share

- 2023-11: MXN 13.90 per share

- 2023-12: MXN 16.00 per share

- 2024-01: MXN 13.76 per share

- 2024-02: MXN 12.40 per share

- 2024-03: MXN 12.14 per share

- 2024-04: MXN 14.09 per share

- 2024-05: MXN 13.56 per share

- 2024-06: MXN 11.58 per share

- 2024-07: MXN 11.47 per share

- 2024-08: MXN 11.20 per share

- 2024-09: MXN 12.43 per share

- 2024-10: MXN 14.89 per share

- 2024-11: MXN 15.55 per share

- 2024-12: MXN 15.63 per share

- 2025-01: MXN 17.55 per share

- 2025-02: MXN 13.32 per share

- 2025-03: MXN 10.88 per share

- 2025-04: MXN 7.32 per share

- 2025-05: MXN 9.28 per share

- 2025-06: MXN 8.86 per share

- 2025-07: MXN 11.03 per share

- 2025-08: MXN 11.47 per share

- 2025-09: MXN 13.14 per share

- 2025-10: MXN 12.38 per share

- 2025-11: MXN 13.24 per share

- 2025-12: MXN 16.00 per share

- 2026-01: MXN 16.89 per share

- 2026-02: MXN 14.91 per share

- 2026-03: MXN 13.01 per share

- 2026-04: MXN 13.05 per share

- 2026-05: MXN 13.69 per share

- 2026-06: MXN 16.34 per share

- 2026-07: MXN 13.55 per share

- 2026-08: MXN 11.08 per share

- 2026-09: MXN 11.95 per share

- 2026-10: MXN 11.18 per share

## Annual estimated value (MXN per share)

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.

## Reported holder observations