In Brief
Aegean Airlines adds new flights to its winter schedule Aegean Airlines, Greece’s biggest private airline, added flights to its winter travel schedule, including a daily direct flight to Paris from Athens, starting in November, and five flights a week from Athens to Dusseldorf, beginning in October. In December, Aegean will add an afternoon flight to its current morning and evening Athens-to-London schedule. In collaboration with Russian tour operators, Aegean will also start flying from Thessaloniki, its second-largest city, to Moscow, the company said. (Bloomberg) Producer price inflation eases in August to 11.2 percent Greek producer price inflation decelerated to 11.2 percent year-on-year in August from 12.7 percent in July, helped by easing oil prices, data from the National Statistics Service (NSS) showed yesterday. The latest reading brought the 12-month average annual pace of producer price inflation to 9.2 percent. Consumer inflation in August eased from a 10-year high to a 4.7 percent annual pace. «The figures show a deceleration for the first time in 12 months, helped by the slower rate of increase in energy prices. The continued slowdown in energy prices is set to help a further deceleration in the producer price inflation index, especially in the last quarter of the year.» said Nicholas Magginas, economist at National Bank of Greece. (Reuters) Profit dips Elektroniki Athinon SA, a Greek electronic appliances retailer, posted an 8.1 percent decline in full-year profits on expenses related to promoting its first store in Serbia and a slowdown in demand. Net income in the 12 months ended June 30 fell to 6.8 million euros ($9.8 million) from 7.4 million euros a year ago, according to an e-mailed statement from the Athens-based company. Sales rose 25.3 percent to 227.1 million euros driven by the company’s audio and video unit and air conditioning, the statement said. (Bloomberg) Port talks Piraeus Port Authority SA, Greece’s biggest port, said in a bourse filing yesterday that talks with Cosco Pacific Ltd, Asia’s third-biggest container terminal operator, will be finalized in early October. Cosco was named the provisional winner of a bid to run container operations at Piraeus in June. (Bloomberg) Airbus acquisition National carrier Cyprus Airways will acquire an Airbus 319 on lease as part of a partial renewal of its fleet, the airline said yesterday. The airline, which is majority state-controlled, said a letter of intent was signed with the International Lease Finance Corporation on September 26. The lease is valid for six years. An airline spokesman said financial details of the lease were not available. Cyprus Airways had recently said it was looking at a partial renewal of its fleet, which now comprises 11 Airbus aircraft with an average age of 12.5 years. (Reuters) Bid rejected Romania’s privatization agency AVAS rejected yesterday a bid by Czech firm Aero Vodochody to buy the state’s majority stake in aircraft maker Avioane Craiova SA, saying its conditions were unacceptable. «Contractual claims issued during the negotiation process exceeded the current legal framework and they couldn’t be taken into account,» AVAS said. (Reuters)
