TOKYO - Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) Friday said its quarterly net loss narrowed to 60 million dollars on last year and retained its full-year net profit forecast of 57 million dollars.

The 5.25 billion yen first-quarter loss for Japan's second biggest carrier was below a 29.2 billion yen loss for April-June last year when the aviation sector was hurt badly by the global financial crisis. The airline said it expects to return to net profit in the current year mainly on cost cuts and an expected rise in flight numbers with the opening of a new runway at Tokyo's Haneda airport later this year.

For the year to March 2011, ANA kept its forecast of 5.0 billion yen net profit and 42.0 billion yen operating profit.

It warned, however, that a "downward economic swing, primarily in Europe, and increasingly competitive markets both inside and outside Japan make business conditions uncertain".

In the first quarter, ANA booked an operating profit of 2.98 billion yen, a recovery from an operating loss of 42.42 billion yen the previous year, on sales of 306.85 billion yen, up 13.7 percent from a year earlier.

"Despite the temporary impact of the volcanic eruption in Iceland and riots by demonstrators in Thailand, a marked recovery was seen, led by increased business demand" in international flights, ANA said in a statement.

Domestic flights also enjoyed an increase in the number of passengers thanks to recovery in demand in business travel, it said, adding that cost-cutting efforts had also contributed to the shrinking of the net loss.