Easyjet board set for showdown with founder over Airbus contract April 27, 2020 Easyjet’s board has set the date for a showdown with founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who has been calling for the airline to scrap a £4.5bn order with Airbus. On May 22, shareholders will vote on whether to back the board’s plan to go through with the deal, which has been modified in light of the [...]
Easyjet CEO says founder’s calls for his sacking are ‘a distraction’ April 16, 2020 Easyjet’s chief executive has said that calls for his removal from the airline’s founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou are “a distraction” and “quite frankly unhelpful”. Speaking to CityAM, Johan Lundgren said that his focus was “completely on managing this business through the worst crisis the aviation industry has ever seen. Lundgren’s comments came after Haji-Ioannou, [...]
Easyjet founder refers airline to watchdog over Airbus deal April 14, 2020 Easyjet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has referred the airline to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for not showing “the highest standards of disclosure and transparency” in its decision to defer the order of 24 new aircraft from Airbus. Haji-Ioannou has been locked in a spat with the budget carrier’s executives over a deal for 107 [...]
Easyjet accused of spending £600m of taxpayer money on Airbus deal April 8, 2020 Easyjet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has once again lashed out at the firm, saying the carrier’s receipt of £600m in loans from the government “could be the biggest scandal in British corporate history”. The Greek-Cypriot businessman has pressured Easyjet’s board to scrap a £4.5bn order for 107 new planes from Airbus. Haji-Ioannou believes cancelling the [...]
Easyjet founder threatens to sue bosses over Airbus contract April 7, 2020 Easyjet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has threatened to sue the company’s board as the spat over a £4.5bn order of planes from Airbus rumbles on. The Greek-Cypriot businessman told the Telegraph that if any of the £300m the airline has spent in the last three weeks has gone to Airbus, “I will sue the directors [...]
Coronavirus: Easyjet secures £600m in Bank of England funding April 6, 2020 Easyjet has secured £600m in commercial paper from the Bank of England’s (BoE) new Covid Corporate Funding Facility as the low-cost carrier seeks to strengthen its liquidity during the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Shares in the firm rose 13 per cent after the announcement. Airlines have been among the businesses hardest hit by the pandemic, which [...]
Easyjet founder warns airline could run out of money by August April 6, 2020 Easyjet’s founder and largest shareholder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has warned that unless a £4.5bn order for new Airbus planes is scrapped the carrier will run out of money by August. The Greek businessman is also seeking the removal of Easyjet chief financial officer Andrew Findlay. Haji-Ioannou said sacking Findlay “is the only way of preventing [...]
Easyjet founder blasts board over call for state aid, tells firm to raise cash March 30, 2020 Easyjet’s founder and largest shareholder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has blasted the airline’s calls for state aid, saying companies as big as Easyjet “do not deserve charitable gifts”. Instead, the carrier should look to raise cash through an equity raise, he said, saying government loans “would only postpone the problem, [they] do not cure it”. In [...]
Airlines ask grounded staff to answer NHS volunteer call March 30, 2020 Virgin Atlantic and Easyjet have written to grounded staff members asking them to help in the NHS’ new Nightingale hospitals in a bid to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Easyjet has already contacted all 9,000 of its employees, including 4,000 or so cabin crew staff trained in CPR, whilst Virgin will begin writing to 4,000 of [...]
Coronavirus: Easyjet and Lufthansa bosses warn that industry will need state aid March 19, 2020 Easyjet chief executive Johan Lundgren has warned that he expects to see “a lot of failures” in the global aviation industry due to the damage done by the coronavirus outbreak. Speaking to the BBC, Lundgren said: “I have been working in the industry for 30 years and I have never seen anything like this.” “If [...]