Stelios calls truce in long-running battle with easyJet management

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of easyJet, has called a truce in a long-running and bitter battle with the airline’s management and supported the purchase of more than 50 new aircraft. Haji-Ioannou, the low-cost airline’s biggest shareholder, voted in favour of a multibillion-dollar order from Airbus at a shareholder meeting on Wednesday. The resolution was overwhelmingly backed by shareholders that voted. The vote of support for the Airbus deal follows years of rancour, as Haji-Ioannou battled a string of chief executives and board members over the future of the company he founded in 1995. Haji-Ioannou led a concerted effort to torpedo an original agreement for new planes with Airbus in 2013. He hit what he called “an all-time low” in 2020 when he threatened personally to sue the “scoundrels” running the airline. In the same year he also lost a bid to oust four directors of the company, including current chief executive Johan Lundgren, and offered a multimillion-pound reward for information that could lead to the cancellation of the airline’s contract with Airbus. The aircraft order Haji-Ioannou has backed was signed in June and is part of the wider agreement that he once opposed vigorously. It includes 56 A320neo aircraft, as well as the conversion of an order of 18 A320neo to 18 A321neo aircraft.<br/>