Kenya Airways said annual losses almost doubled even before the part-state owned national airline was forced to ground planes to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Flight restrictions could have a greater impact on sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest airline, which expects a fall in passenger traffic of as much as 65% this year, according CEO Allan Kilavuka. That would reduce revenue by $400m from the 128.3b shillings ($1.2b) collected last year, Kilavuka said Wednesday. The Nairobi-based company expects to resume commercial passenger flights next month after they were halted on March 25 to comply with government travel bans. Demand may not recover for a year, Chairman Michael Joseph said. The airline asked the government for 9b shillings at the beginning of the year to support operations including maintenance of planes. It received 5b shillings with the rest expected after the new fiscal year begins in July, according to Joseph. Kenya Airways made a seventh consecutive annual loss in 2019. The airline fell almost 13b shillings ($121.2m) into the red, compared with 7.6b shillings the previous year, according to a statement.<br/>