Korean Air has posted its first deficit in operating earnings in three quarters amid growing fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak. 

In a regulatory filing on Friday, South Korean largest airline said it swung to an operating loss of 56-point-six billion won in the first quarter of 2020 from a profit of 238-point-four billion won a year earlier. 

Its revenues also plummeted by around 23 percent on-year to two-point-35 trillion won, while its net loss widened from 89-point-four billion won to 692 billion won. 

The losses came after the company managed to become the only local air carrier to post profits last year, despite a significant drop in demand triggered by a nationwide boycott against Japanese products and services following Tokyo’s trade restrictions on Seoul and the U.S.-China trade war. 

However, the results were less grim than what analysts projected due in part to the airline's emergency management measures, including furloughs for 70 percent of its employees. 

Korean Air's surprise growth in cargo transportation by over three percent and outbreak-triggered low oil prices were also attributed to the better-than-expected performance.