Brazilian airline Azul's losses narrow in first quarter

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian airline Azul's losses narrowed in the first quarter to 324.2 million reais ($62.86 million), it reported on Monday, as demand for air travel in the country picked up.

The airline, which has faced high leasing and interest costs, has also been hurt by the depreciation of Brazil's real against the dollar and reported a loss of 847.3 million reais related to foreign exchange swings in the first quarter.

Its overall loss narrowed from a 727.6 million real loss in the first quarter of 2023.

Azul said that both its revenue and core earnings reached all-time highs for a first quarter, with traffic as measured by revenue passenger kilometers (RPK) rising 1.7% from a year earlier.

The company had in March bumped up its estimate for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) this year due to rising demand in Latin America's largest economy.

"We are especially encouraged by the progress we are making in aircraft utilization," Chief Executive John Rodgerson said in a statement, adding the company is fully focused on increasing its profitability.

"We will generate significant EBITDA, free cash flow and margin expansion in the second half of 2024 and in the years to come," he said.

Azul's first-quarter EBITDA came in at 1.42 billion reais, up 37.4% year-on-year, while net revenue rose 4.5% to 4.68 billion reais. The top line landed slightly below the 4.88 billion reais expected by analysts polled by LSEG.

($1 = 5.1579 reais)

(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo, Editing by Louise Heavens and Susan Fenton)