FRANKFURT: German airline giant Lufthansa on Thursday posted a first-quarter net loss of one billion euros ($1.2 billion) as the pandemic continued to sap travel demand, and said it was more pessimistic than before about the year ahead.

The net loss was nevertheless slightly narrower than analysts had expected, and much improved on the 2.1-billion-euro loss over the same period in 2020 when the first coronavirus wave upended air travel and left planes grounded worldwide.