Japan Airlines Co. said Monday it posted a net loss of 93.71 billion yen ($885 million) in the April-June quarter, as the global coronavirus outbreak sharply reduced demand for air travel.

JAL marked its largest loss on a quarterly basis since the April-June period in fiscal 2009 when it logged a net loss of 99 billion yen in the wake of the global financial crisis, its worst result.

The loss is also the largest since it relisted in 2012 after filing for bankruptcy.

The company again withheld its earnings forecast for the current business year through March, citing uncertainty due to the virus pandemic.

Meanwhile, the airline said its estimated revenues from domestic and international passengers are expected to be 55 percent or 65 percent lower than the previous year's revenue of 1.06 trillion yen.

"It is very hard to foresee a path to recovery right now," Hideki Kikuyama, a senior managing executive officer of JAL, said at a press conference, but he was adamant the company "will survive this crisis."

In the April-June quarter, JAL logged an operating loss of 131.01 billion yen on revenue of 76.39 billion yen, down 78.1 percent from a year earlier.

Revenue from international passengers plunged 97.9 percent to 2.7 billion yen, while that of domestic passengers fell 85.1 percent to 18.9 billion yen.

However, revenue from cargo and postal flights posted a 16.9 percent increase to 26.5 billion amid tight supply of services due to the virus spread, according to JAL.

Kikuyama said the company plans to cut fixed costs by 90 billion yen and put off part of its planned investment of 80 billion yen, including purchases of new aircraft, in fiscal 2020 as it makes every effort to emerge from the pandemic.

JAL said it has sufficient cash reserves despite the hit taken during the pandemic, holding 39.43 billion yen in cash as of the end of June.

JAL's virus-hit earnings result followed its rival ANA Holdings Inc., the parent company of All Nippon Airways Co., which reported Wednesday a record net loss of 108.82 billion yen in the same quarter.

==Kyodo

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