EasyJet founder escalates spending row with challenge to board

EasyJet founder has called for a shareholder meeting to oust one of the discount airline’s directors, following through on a threat to remove the board one-by-one in a dispute over a GBP4.5b aircraft order. Stelios Haji-Ioannou, EasyJet’s biggest owner with a 34% stake, proposed a general meeting to remove director Andreas Bierwirth, according to a letter sent late Wednesday to the airline’s chairman, John Barton. Bierwirth, a former airline and telecommunications executive, has been a member of the board since 2014. Haji-Ioannou, who has long opposed buying new aircraft, this week turned up the heat on a low-simmering campaign to halt the purchase of more than 100 Airbus SE narrow-body jets. The 53-year-old entrepreneur, emboldened by the coronavirus crisis that’s suddenly turned large spending commitments into a millstone, on Sunday demanded the deal for A320-family planes be terminated. He threatened to challenge one non-executive director every seven weeks, tying up the board with a series of cumbersome and divisive general meetings until it succumbs. “The board is focused on managing the unprecedented challenges facing the airline and the aviation sector as a whole,” it said in response to Haji-Ioannau’s letter. “We believe that holding a general meeting would be an unhelpful distraction from tackling the many immediate issues our business faces.”<br/>