Japan Airlines on Tuesday forecast a net loss of 146b yen ($1.28b) for the fiscal year ending March 2022, as it struggles to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. JAL had refrained making a forecast for the current fiscal year until now, amid lingering uncertainties related to COVID-19. The company is now expected to have operating losses for a second consecutive fiscal year. The airline forecasts 766b yen in consolidated sales for the current fiscal year, up 59% from the previous year. For the April-September period, the carrier posted a consolidated net loss of 104.9b yen, as it was hit by weak domestic passenger demand due to repeated coronavirus states of emergency. Japan was under an emergency for much of the period, which encompasses some peak travel periods. In the face of the global travel slump, JAL revealed that it will reduce the group's total employees by 2,500 to 33,500 by the end of fiscal 2023, via a combination of attrition and cutting back on new hires. "I feel a great deal of management responsibility," Hideki Kikuyama, the company's CFO, said during the earnings conference on Tuesday. Although Kikuyama mentioned that there had been "signs of a recovery in demand in July," the expanded state of emergency made the situation worse after that. "I have a responsibility to recover the business performance as soon as possible." JAL said earnings before interest and tax should see profitability return in the January-March quarter, assuming domestic demand recovers to 90% of pre-pandemic levels during that period. The group is aiming to be profitable in the year ending March 2023.<br/>