Madrid - Spain's King Juan Carlos and other dignitaries, hundreds of Madrid residents and airport emergency workers Thursday attended a solemn funeral mass for the 154 people killed in the August 20 air crash in the Spanish capital.

"Do not lose the strength to continue your lives with love and hope," Madrid Archbishop Antonio Maria Rouco Varela told around 130 family members of the victims in his homily.

"The enigma and pain of death have been illuminated by the greater love of God" in the resurrection of Christ, Cardinal Rouco said.

Those present at the Almudena Cathedral included King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and other government members, Madrid dignitaries, ambassadors, Spanair pilots and flight attendants in uniforms, and representatives of Boeing which made the plane.

A total of around 2,000 people were estimated to have attended the funeral.

A representative of Protestant churches also read a prayer at the Catholic mass, because some of the victims had been Protestants.

A Spanair MD-82 jet en route to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria crashed after takeoff for reasons that are under investigation. Only 18 of the 172 people on board survived.

The mass had initially been scheduled for September 1, but was postponed because of delays in identifying the remains of all the victims.

On September 17, another funeral will be celebrated in Las Palmas, where many of the victims were from.

The air crash was expected to cause Spanair losses between 30 and 60 million euros (40 to 80 million dollars), press reports quoted sources of the airline as saying.

Ticket sales have dropped by about 8 per cent, reports said. Spanair human resources director Hector Sandoval said the carrier was working to regain the confidence of clients.