Airline SAS on Friday posted a first-quarter loss of 2.49 billion Swedish crowns ($239 million) and warned it expected higher interest rates and costs to affect the industry this year.

The airline, which sought Chapter 11 U.S. bankruptcy protection last year, reiterated that it intends to complete that process in the second half of 2023.

Its loss for the November-January quarter was slightly smaller than its loss before tax of 2.60 billion crowns a year earlier.

Part-owned by the governments of Sweden and Denmark, SAS predicted fiscal full-year 2023 revenue of around 40 billion crowns.

It repeated that it expects to return to positive earnings before tax in fiscal 2024. For fiscal 2026 it predicted the profit would be higher than its previous assessment, made in September, of around 3-4 billion crowns.

SAS, which has seen its share price plummet, has renegotiated contracts with many of its aircraft lessors as part of big cost cuts.

($1 = 10.4239 Swedish crowns) (Reporting by Marie Mannes, editing by Anna Ringstrom and Essi Lehto)