HELSINKI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Finnish national airline Finnair improved its financial performance remarkably in 2017, the company said on Friday.

Its profit tripled to 170.4 million euros in 2017 from 55.2 million euros in 2016, while the turnover grew 11 percent from 2016 and reached 2.6 billion euros, according to a press release.

The airline carried 12 million passengers in 2017, one million more than in 2016. It increased its capacity in 2017 by nearly 9 percent.

Following the announcement of the good results, the share of Finnair showed a 12 percent increase at the Helsinki stock exchange at noon on Friday.

Finnair stock is publicly listed, but 56 percent of its shares are in government ownership and the state of Finland holds majority control.

The Board of Finnair suggested that the dividend for 2017 is 30 cents per share. In 2016 it was 10 cents.

The growth was particularly strong in the last quarter of 2017, said the company. The Q4 result before tax was 20.7 million euros, 30 percent up from the 15.9 million in 2016. The Finnish business news service Taloussanomat reported that analysts had expected a 16.6-million result for Q4.

Finnair's CEO Pekka Vauramo told a press conference on Friday that favorable business environment had supported the airline's growth, together with the capacity, route network and product decisions of recent years.

Finnair plans to increase its capacity by more than 15 percent in 2018, said Vauramo.

Global airline traffic is expected to grow strongly in 2018 and Finnair expects increased competition, particularly on routes linking Europe with Asia and with North America. (1 euro = 1.25 U.S. dollars)