Finnish airline Finnair reported a deeper-than-expected first-quarter loss and said on Tuesday it would post a full-year loss due to weak demand and low ticket prices.

Losses before interest and tax, excluding non-recurring items, came to EUR47.5 million euros (USD$61.8 million) in January-March, against a profit of EUR12 million a year ago.

"This year is expected to be a very difficult one for airlines' financial development," Finnair said in a statement.

"The decline in business travel is expected to continue in the second quarter... (which) is expected to remain clearly loss-making," it said. "Visibility for the second half of the year is limited, but we expect the full-year operational result to be negative."

Finnair's Scandinavian rival SAS was due to post its first-quarter results at around 1000 GMT, and was expected to report a pre-tax loss of SEK1 billion Swedish kronor (USD$122 million).

SAS is cutting costs and focusing on core operations to ride out the current storm.