Greek airline Aegean's passenger traffic up 12 pct in first quarter

Aegean, a member of the Star Alliance airline group, increased its load factor to 81.2 percent, from 76.8 percent in the same period in 2017.

The airline said its passenger numbers totalled 2.36 million in the three-month period compared to 2.10 million in Jan-March last year.

The carrier is adding 11 new routes this year, including Basel in Switzerland, Malaga in Spain and Palermo, Turin and Bologna in Italy.

Last month, Aegean picked Airbus for an order of 42 aircraft worth $5 billion (4 billion euros) to renew its fleet of single-aisle planes and add capacity for future expansion.