Philippe Dandrieux, Member of the Executive Board of CCM Airlines

What potential does the Mediterranean offer for air transport?

Philippe Dandrieux - We believe that this potential is significant, since traffic in the region is based both on large markets that are part of the European Union, such as Spain and Italy, and on emerging markets such as Libya, Morocco and Turkey, which are experiencing very high growth rates. In many emerging countries, new hubs are being set up to encourage new flows of business traffic to the rest of Africa and even Asia.

How can CCM Airlines make the most of this rise in Mediterranean air traffic?

P. D. - We're thinking about new flights to hubs such as Rome. In cooperation with Air France, we already offer two daily flights between Marseille and Rome, with excellent results. We could offer flights from Nice, although we still need to study the solvency of the market. You can always generate traffic, but is it profitable? Other airlines have failed before us. Should we set up a second base outside Corsica? It would be a way for us to offset the seasonal nature of our routes on the island. We could start this type of operation in 2009, but it will depend on how demand evolves with the crisis.

How do you react to the arrival of Easyjet to Bastia from Paris and Lyon?

P. D. - Of course we need to strengthen our response to the arrival of Easyjet. We are already offering very low fares, from 40 euros excluding tax, from Nice and Marseille to Corsica on a single ticket. We have a range of promotional fares that used to be available only at certain times of the year, and we are going to extend these promotions to the whole year.