SAO PAULO, March 28 (Reuters) - Brazilian airline Azul ( AZUL )

on Thursday bumped up its estimate for earnings

before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2024.

The company hiked its forecast to around 6.5 billion

reais ($1.30 billion), representing a nearly 25% growth over its

2023 EBITDA, and above the 6.3 billion reais previously

projected.

The move comes as a result of robust demand, improving fuel

prices, "an expected growth in capacity and a greater number of

fuel-efficient aircraft entering the fleet," Azul ( AZUL ) said in a

securities filing.

For the fourth quarter of 2023, the airline reported a

74.5% growth in net profit to 403.3 million reais.

Net revenue grew 13% from a year earlier to 5.03 billion

reais, topping the estimate of analysts polled by LSEG of 4.93

billion reais.

Earlier on Thursday, Azul's ( AZUL ) troubled local competitor

Gol, which is under bankruptcy protection in the

United States,

posted

a net loss of 1.09 billion reais for the same period.

($1 = 4.9932 reais)