EasyJet has revealed losses of just over £700million for the first half of its financial year following the coronavirus crisis.
The low-cost airline said its passenger numbers were down 89% during this period compared to a year ago, as it flew just 4.1million people.
But it expects to see a pick-up of demand for flights from June, providing the government expands the list of "green" countries on its traffic light system.
At the moment, only a handful of countries are on the "green" list, including Portugal and Gibraltar, and some countries still have strict entry requirements for British travellers.
EasyJet said it added 105,000 seats for passengers following the announcement that foreign travel could restart from May 17.
However, the airline still expects to fly only around 15% of its pre-pandemic flight programme until the end of June.
In its financial update today, the airline reported underlying losses of £701million for the six months to March 31 compared to £193million a year ago.
Pre-tax losses were recorded at £645million, the airline revealed.
EasyJet says its financial performance would have been worse if it wasn't for a cost-cutting programme that is expected to save the company £500million.
Since the start of the pandemic, the company has raised total liquidity of more than £5.5billion - with its net debt quadrupling to £2billion, compared to £467million in the same period last year.
Johan Lundgren, chief executive of easyJet, said: "We are ready to significantly ramp up our flying for the summer with a view to maximising the opportunities we see in Europe.
"We have the ability to flex up quickly to operate 90% of our current fleet over the peak summer period to match demand.
"We know there is pent-up demand, we saw this again when green list countries were released and added more than 105,000 seats, and so we look forward to being able to help many more people to travel this summer.”
