Stelios fires off broadside to Easyjet

30th July 2010

Stelios gives Easyjet a broadside following press panning for poor punctuality

Sir Stelios the founder of Easyjet and still its largest shareholder with 38% is very unhappy with the performance of the airline and the unrest amongst staff where morale is said to be rock bottom.

This has resulted in a letter to Easyjet chairman being fired off by Stelios warning that unless there is a vast improvement in performance within 90 days, he will withdraw their ability to use the name Easyjet for which he holds the intellectual property rights. Stelios further states that this unacceptable performance is directly undermining the good name and reputation of easyGroup IP Licensing

This stems from their abysmal punctuality at record at Gatwick in particular where more than 50% of flights fail to go on  time with many more cancelled because there is too few crew to fly them. The level of cancellations has left would be travellers stranded who have in turn vented their anger on staff who are fed up with taking flack for what they clearly see as poor management by failing to get the correct level of staff in the right place at the right time.

The general consensus is that the company that has always worked on a tightly run budget but it is now being run on a shoe string that will have key staff looking elsewhere that can take the company down a very slippery slope.

Despite all these problems and the loss of £65 million due to the ash cloud the airline still managed to increase revenue in the third quarter with total revenue up 5.3pc to £759 million which is no mean achievement. Notwithstanding this, the share price fell 30 points which reflects what the market feels about the company’s future prospects.