EasyJet founder Stelios calls truce in battle with management – FT

(Reuters) – EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou plans to call a truce in a dispute with the British airline’s management and support the purchase of 56 new Airbus aircraft, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Haji-Ioannou, the airline’s biggest shareholder, is planning to vote in favor of a multibillion-dollar order with Airbus at a shareholder meeting later in the day, according to the report.

Haji-Ioannou, who founded EasyJet in 1995, quit its board in 2010 and has clashed several times with the management since then.

EasyJet declined to comment.

Last month, EasyJet said it would buy 56 Airbus A320neo aircraft and convert a previous order to 18 new A321neo aircraft, fulfilling options in a 2013 deal with the European planemaker.

In December 2020, EasyJet agreed with Airbus to defer some deliveries of aircraft under the 2013 deal because the COVID-19 pandemic had put its finances under severe pressure.

The aircraft order had proved a source of dispute with Haji-Ioannou, who had opposed the investment at the height of the pandemic.

(Reporting by Sneha Bhowmik in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)