The global coronavirus pandemic may not do much to change the long-standing, deep-rooted rivalry between Japan's two major airlines, but it is forcing ANA Holdings Inc. to take a pause in its expansion strategy amid the specter of further financial strains.

With a record net loss of ¥510 billion ($4.8 billion) projected for the current business year through March, ANA's struggles are raising the need to further streamline its international operations — an area in which the airline has been scrambling to obtain an edge over rival Japan Airlines Co.

"My biggest worry is ANA will repeat the mistakes made by JAL, which ended up going bankrupt, because it had become too big a company," said Munenori Nomura, an industrial economics professor at Kwansei Gakuin University.