Bruce Whitfield:
Welcome now to the joint Comair chief executive Erik Venter, whose company produce a sparkling trading update today, expecting growth, Erik, on headline earnings per share as much as 60 percent better; what is behind that sort of stellar growth in what has been quite a tough environment globally for airlines?

Erik Venter:
Yes Bruce, we have had a few challenges: our fuel price is once again up by 32 percent on last year which adds another R60-million to the half year fuel bill and we have seen a slight slowdown in the overall market growth in passenger volumes, but there is still single digit growth, so that is helping a little.

And then the big positive of items have been the ongoing fleet upgrade program, we are still seeing continued efficiencies coming through there and we have seen a small increase in average prices in the market as well. So a combination of factors.

Bruce Whitfield:
So you have actually been able to put prices increases through despite the fact that there is a considerable amount of competition in this industry.

Erik Venter:
Yes, well, we were a bit surprised by the results that came out from our main competitor a few days ago, the half year results, because yes indeed, we have actually seen a small price increase coming through.

Bruce Whitfield:
And also the Lanseria Cape Town route seems to be working. The international low cost model works for budget airlines such as yourself, using the smaller airports and anything from your experience suggesting that the Lanseria model actually might be viable into the future and actually may become your pre-eminent departure point out of Gauteng?

Erik Venter:
It is quite possible; there have been a number of constraints on using that airport, initially and one or them being the road infrastructure to the airport.

Bruce Whitfield:
I travelled that road the other day, I understand exactly what you mean.

Erik Venter:
Yes, but fortunately there has been quite a lot of money put towards it for upgrading the road and a long a few other initiatives, I think that the Lanseria airport is going to become quite a prominent feature in the South Africa travel environment, specifically because of the load that has been placed on the Johannesburg international airport at the moment.

Bruce Whitfield:
Are you looking at additional flights out of that particular airport?

Erik Venter:
Yes we certainly are.

Bruce Whitfield:
And what sort of timeframes on that, because if you are looking, they are pretty loaded because you only have one between Cape Town and each way, per day, don’t you at the moment?

Erik Venter:
Yes. At the moment it is largely dictated by a fleet replacement program and availability of aircraft, but at the moment we are planning around March to increase our frequency out of Lanseria and also potentially to other destinations other than Lanseria.

Bruce Whitfield:
Erik Venter thank you very much indeed, the Comair joint chief executive, not a great phone line, but good to talk to you this evening with big profit growth and also to be able to save money not only on a better quality aircraft, but also to be able to get the passenger loads up, that helps when you are doing that. And despite the rising fuel is cost.