(Reuters) - Air Canada (>> Air Canada) reported a wider fourth quarter net loss on Wednesday as operating costs rose, in part because of the weaker Canadian dollar, and adjusted earnings came in just shy of analysts' expectations.

Fuel costs fell to 80.7 cents per liter from 88.4 cents a year earlier, and Canada's biggest airline forecast more improvement in the first quarter, to 66 cents.

Air Canada reported adjusted earnings of C$67 million, or 23 Canadian cents a share, up from C$3 million, or 1 Canadian cent, a year earlier. Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of 24 Canadian cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Non-operating expenses rose 46 percent to C$206 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, while operating costs rose 9 percent to C$3.00 billion. The airline said employee benefit expenses had been higher than expected in the quarter.

A fall in Canadian dollar hurts Canadian carriers as they make major purchases, such as planes and fuel, in U.S. dollars. But a 50 percent slump in global crude prices since June has improved fuel costs.

The Montreal-based company's load factor, which measures how effectively it filled seats, rose to 81.0 percent from 80.3 percent.

Net loss widened to C$100 million ($79.16 million), or 35 Canadian cents per share, from C$6 million, or 2 Canadian cents, a year earlier. Operating revenue rose 7.3 percent to C$3.10 billion.

(Reporting by Allison Martell in Toronto and Anannya Pramanick in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian and Chizu Nomiyama)

Stocks treated in this article : WestJet Airlines Ltd., Air Canada