British airline easyJet warned on Thursday its first ever annual loss could be as much as 845 million pounds ($1.1 billion) as the pandemic meant it was flying just 25 percent of planned capacity.

The airline has signaled to the government it may need more financial support, according to media reports.

The headline loss before tax forecast for the year ended September 30 of 815-845 million pounds was worse than the loss of 794 million expected by analysts, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

That is the first time easyJet, which was founded in 1995, has ever made a full-year loss.

With travel at very low levels, most European airlines are bleeding cash. EasyJet's larger low-cost rival Ryanair RYA.I has called this winter a "write-off."

EasyJet said ongoing travel restrictions meant it would fly just 25 percent of planned capacity for the rest of 2020, behind Ryanair which is aiming for 40 percent in October.

At such levels and with no recovery in sight, easyJet's finances will continue to remain under pressure. CEO Johan Lundgren called on Thursday for Britain to "step up with a bespoke package of measures" to help airlines.

To survive the pandemic so far, easyJet has taken a 600-million-pound loan from the government, cut 4,500 jobs, raised 608 million pounds from selling aircraft and tapped shareholders for 419 million pounds. It said it might have to do more.

In the UK, airlines have called for tax breaks and other measures to help them through the crisis as well as an airport testing regime for COVID-19 to shorten Britain's 14-day quarantine rule, which now applies to most European countries.

Airlines have been one of the businesses hardest hit by the global pandemic. Major U.S. carriers reported a net loss of $11 billion for the second quarter, double the loss made in the first three months of this year, CBS reported on September 14.

The whole industry is losing $13 billion a month, which could force large swathes of the industry into bankruptcy within months, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned on Tuesday.

IATA also worried that carriers will continue to burn cash next year with the traffic levels set to remain stunted through 2021 even assuming that a COVID-19 vaccine is discovered.

(With input from CBS and IATA)