Fastjet reports excellent first week and unveils fundraising plans

fastjet, Africa's first low-cost airline which started commercial flight operations one week ago in Tanzania, in which time it has carried 6,884 passengers with an average load factor of 85.4 per cent.

The company has also reported the fastjet has sold 18,090 tickets to only two destinations with bookings now being taken as far out as March 2013.

From Friday 7th, the company will start to run additional routes to its key destinations of Mwanza and Kilimanjaro from Dar es Salaam.

Chief Executive Ed Winter said: "A great deal of hard work has gone in from the fastjet team, Tanzanian Government, agents, contractors and suppliers to make this launch such a success. We are looking forward to having all three initial Airbus A319's fully operational over the coming weeks so that we can adequately cater for the expected holiday surge."

The update comes as the company announced that it is increasing its working capital through a new successful fund raising with gross proceeds of £2.0m via a placing with an existing institutional investor of 66.67m shares at 3p each.

The company has also drawn down on its £5.0m equity financing facility (EFF) with Darwin Strategic, a majority owned subsidiary of Henderson Global Investors Volantis Fund, raising £514,386. These EFF shares will be issued at 3.6p each.

The share price fell 2.03% to 3.62p by 12:43.

NR