Finnish airline Finnair's fourth-quarter and full-year revenue and passenger numbers fell sharply due to the coronavirus pandemic, the flag carrier said on Thursday.
Revenue in the October-to-December period fell almost 87% to 102 million euros (123 million dollars), the airline said
The carrier reported a net loss of 9.1 million euros for the period, compared to a net profit of 24.5 million euros during the same period in 2019.
The airline - majority-owned by the Finnish state - flew about 300,000 passengers in the quarter, down by 92% year-on-year.
For full-year 2020, the airline's net loss was 523 million euros, compared to a net profit of almost 75 million euros in 2019.
Cargo demand
Demand for cargo however contributed to reduce the flow of red ink.
"The year 2020 will go down in history as the most difficult peacetime year in commercial aviation's 100 years of existence," said chief executive Topi Manner, referring to the fallout from the pandemic.
Travel restrictions resulted in a sharp drop in Finnair passenger numbers for the full-year, down over 70% to 3.5 million passengers, Manner said.
The Finnair boss said the airline expected "travel to begin to recover from summer 2021 onwards as vaccination coverage increases and countries start lifting their travel restrictions."
