Stelios Haji-Ioannou on low-cost Mideast airlines (page 3 of 3)

The buses will start in the next few months, and probably the hotels by the summer.

Q. Has everything worked as well as expected?

A. Every startup loses money in the beginning. Anybody who says that they can start a company and make money in a few months - they're dreaming. I think the companies are following a normal pattern of investment at the beginning, drawing heavy losses, then smaller losses, then break-even and then go.

I believe that my Internet company, which is my third, will break even this year. That's less than five years from launch.

Q. But an Internet café is a concept that is soon going to be obsolete.

A. People used to say that, but I can't believe that everybody in the world, even in developed countries, will walk around with a BlackBerry. I carry a BlackBerry, and pay dearly for it, and I use it because I can afford it.

Just go to New York or London, walk into any of our points of purchase - now they're not in premises that we control. They're inside restaurants.

What we've done is we've partnered people like McDonald's and Burger King, and installed our computers inside their premises. What happens is that people come for the Internet and eat, or eat and then use the Internet.

Q. But those chains are also offering WiFi.

A. How many people go to McDonald's with a laptop? Everybody in this building has been offered a free iPaq and probably has a laptop and everything else. Go and have a look at the cybercafé, which is on the other floor. You have to queue for a computer. People need it.

Q. As a matter of fact, I saw you queuing for a computer here in Davos.

A. I sat down and used it for an hour because my BlackBerry isn't working. Anyway, we shall see about that. I try not to be dogmatic. Maybe it will become obsolete, but not in the immediate future.