Thiruvananthapuram, July 29 - Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), the fourth largest airport in India, Wednesday announced a divided of 10 percent up from eight percent given last year.

A top CIAL official told IANS that the decision was taken at the board of directors meeting held late Wednesday evening under the chairmanship of Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan.

'The annual general body meeting of CIAL has been fixed for Sep 28 and also the audited accounts for the last fiscal reveal a profit of Rs.57 crores,' said the official.

The profits of CIAL grew from Rs.47.12 crore in 2007-08 to Rs.57 crore in the last fiscal.

About 10 domestic and 16 international airlines operate from CIAL and in the last fiscal 3.5 million passengers used the airport.

CIAL is the first airport outside the ambit of the Airports Authority of India and was formed as public limited company with equity participation from the Kerala government, financial institutions and a large number of non-resident Indians (NRIs), a majority of whom are Malayalis based in the Middle East.