...he believes the new features such as the portable digEplayer video-on-demand unit will make longer sectors more palatable to customers and help counter Virgin`s moves to upgrade its offering .

``We are adding extra features that give people the choice but don`t increase our cost base,`` he says. ``They are the in-flight entertainment, the digEplayer, and the first one will be on an aircraft, we hope, on our birthday on May 25.

``Then we have hot meals appearing and we also have added features appearing on our website, vouchers and opportunities for people to pre-pay for activities.``

It plans to put the digEplayers on A320 flights longer than 75 minutes, charging $5 for a journey lasting up to two hours and $10 for a longer trip.

Joyce is confident the devices will be a winner for the airline, despite a decision by European low-cost operator Ryanair to abandon them.

``Ryanair only has very short markets and we think the take-up will be bigger here,`` he says.

``The digEplayer people are very confident and we`ve gotten a very good deal out of them that`s a very low-risk profile for us.``

Looking at challenges coming up, Joyce quickly nominates fuel prices, the economy and, of course, the battle with arch-rival Virgin Blue.