Greece's Aegean Airlines Lifts Profit, Raises Dividend

Aegean Airlines increased full-year net earnings by 87% on an improved load factor and higher sales in a strong tourism year, Greece's largest carrier said Thursday. Aegean said net profit jumped to E60.4mlast year from 32.2m in 2016. The airline grew sales revenue by 11% to E1.127b, improving its load factor to 83.2 from 77.4% a year earlier. "The achievement of an 83% load factor, given the seasonality of demand in Greece and rising competition, shows our maturing capacity in managing our route network and ticket pricing," said CE Dimitris Gerogiannis. The airline said it flew a total of 13.2m passengers, up 6% on the previous year, with traffic on international flights performing strongly, up 9% year-on-year.<br/>