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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business

Pass notes No 3,051: Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Age: 44.

Appearance: Barry from EastEnders.

Is this the easyJet guy? This is Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of easyJet, yes.

What's he doing now? He is founding a rival airline called Fastjet.

He's setting up a rival to his own airline? Yep.

Why? Because that's just the kind of guy he is.

Why, in less glib terms? Because when you've conquered the world the only thing left to conquer is yourself.

Why, in terms that make sense? Because he has fallen out with the board, which prioritised fleet expansion when Stelios wanted them to focus on remunerating shareholders. Of which, not wholly coincidentally, he is the biggest; though he gave up day-to-day control in 2002, his family still owns 38% of the airline.

So he's doing it because the board's refusing to give him a bigger share of the profits? Well, they were, but the feud appeared to be over last week when, in what looked like a pretty reasonable compromise, the airline announced its first ever dividend to shareholders, worth £190m, £72m of which went straight to Stelios and his family.

And then what happened? Then Stelios set up a placeholder website for his new company, with white text on a red background reading: "Fastjet.com by Stelios. Coming soon!"

Isn't that a bit weird? Particularly weird because, under the terms of an agreement signed by Stelios last October, he is not allowed to put his name to a new airline any time in the next five years.

How does he plan to get around that? He says the agreement has been invalidated by easyJet's directors, who he alleges broke a "mutual respect" clause by waging a smear campaign against him in the press.

So he's really going through with it? Well, it could still just be a bluff. But it's a bluff with a website, at least.

Do say: "A low-cost airline divided against itself cannot stand."

Don't say: "Although there are plans to introduce standing tickets in future."

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