The airline group said it had suffered a net loss of €1.8 billion in the first three months of the year, more than five times its €324 million loss in the first quarter of 2019.

Air France-KLM highlighted €455 million in fuel purchases that were never used because of the pandemic.

The first-quarter result underscored the effect of the virus crisis in March.

Th group noted “a strong performance at the start of the year with passenger unit revenue up 0.8%” at the end of February.

“March 2020 however was strongly impacted by the expansion of the virus and consequential globally imposed travel restrictions to counter the spread of the Covid-19 virus.”

The group, which is to benefit from €7 billion in French state aid along with several billion euros in aid from the Dutch government, said its capacity had fallen by 10.5% in the quarter.

It predicted “a progressive lifting of border restrictions in 2020, enabling a slow capacity resumption” in the summer, but also “a prolonged negative impact on passenger demand, not expected to recover to pre-crisis levels before several years.”