EasyJet board risks wrath of airline founder Stelios

Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the outspoken founder of EasyJet, has spent years battling successive CEs at the airline over pay, dividends and fleet expansion. But this week relations between the carrier’s largest shareholder and the board reached, in his words, an “all-time low”; the issue, a disagreement over a multibillion-pound aircraft order with Airbus. Stelios warned that he would personally sue the “scoundrels” if any money was paid to Airbus and the company failed to repay a GBP600m govt coronavirus loan next March. He was further enraged by the airline’s decision to reject his demand for a general shareholders meeting for technical reasons. It was a “dirty trick”, he said, and then fired off a second demand for an investor vote to remove 2 directors from the board. <br/>