EasyJet founder: who is Stelios Haji-Ioannou, what is his background - and who is the airline’s CEO Johan Lundgren?

The budget airline easyJet has announced plans to order new aircraft and resume dividend payments to shareholders after it made a record profit this summer. The airline said it expects its profit before tax between July and September to be between £650 million and £670 million, while its profit before tax for the year to the end of September is expected to be between £440 million and £460 million.

EasyJet’s chief executive Johan Lundgren said its positive performance shows “that our strategy is achieving results” and so it is setting out an “ambitious roadmap to serve more customers and deliver attractive shareholder returns.” It comes after the airline posted a record pretax profit of £203 million for its third quarter in July, above analysts’ forecasts. Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the airlines trends “are encouraging” but “investors can’t rule out disruption from air traffic control constraints due to strike action”.

Over the August bank holiday dozens of flights were hit by the failure of National Air Traffic Services (NATS), prompting Lundgren to say NATS had “let down customers”. Ms Lund-Yates said the “extent of the damage to the bottom line here” will be “important to understand but shouldn’t be seen as a long-term indicator of the group’s health”. Lundgren also warned about the potential impact of limited airspace availability and air traffic control strikes in Europe.

In 2021 the airline struggled after its stock plunged by 70% to around 400p in the depths of the pandemic and new rivals creeped in including Wizz Air and Jet2. While in 2020 easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou said the company risked insolvency at the same time as his family accepted a £60 million dividend.

Here we spotlight both the founder of easyJet and its current CEO - who they are and what their background is.

Who is easyJet’s founder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou?

Stelios is best known for creating the easy family of brands beginning with easyJet in 1995 when he was just 27. Six years later he floated the airline on the London Stock Exchange to fund the airline’s growth.

He and his family remain the largest shareholders holding around 15% of the shares. Helios alongside his siblings Clelia and Polys have large stakes in the airline.

Stelios maintains ownership of the easy brand through his private company, easyGroup. Through easyGroup, he has licensed the easy name to such businesses as easyHotel, easyCar and easyCoffee.

At around 40-years-old Stelios began charity work, forming the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation which supports a range of charitable activities mainly in the countries where he has lived and worked including the UK, Greece, Cyprus and Monaco.

Stelios, was born in Athens, Greece on 14 February 1967 and was the son of the late Loucas Haji-Ioannou, a self-made Greek-Cypriot shipping magnate. Loucas owned Troodos Shipping which had a fleet of more than 50 tankers, making him the world’s largest independent ship owner and one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in Europe.

Stelios started his business career working for his father at Troodos Shipping in Piraeus, Greece until aged 25 when he founded his own shipping firm, Stelmar tankers with financial help from his father. He graduated from a High School in Athens in 1984, the London School of Economics in 1987 and in 1988 obtained a MSc from the City University.  By 2006 he received a knighthood from HM Queen Elizabeth II and since 2009 has been the Honorary General Consul for the Republic of Cyprus in the Principality of Monaco – where he lives.

Recently, Stelios launched legal action against a Leicester-based band known as Easy Life, accusing them of “brand theft”. EasyGroup claims that Easy Life has infringed upon the rights of the online retailer Easylife, which licences its name from EasyGroup for an annual fee. Easy Life, an alternative indie pop band formed in 2017, has been forced to change their name stating they will not defend the high court lawsuit as the financial burden would be too high.

Who is easyJet’s CEO?

Last year the boss of easyJet was paid almost £3 million when the airline made a £208 million loss. Johan Lundgren, received a £1.2 million annual bonus and £925,000 in shares on top of his £833,000 fixed salary and benefits.

He joined easyJet as its CEO on 1 December 2017 after more than 30 years working in the travel industry. Before his posting, he worked his way up to be the Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer of TUI AG and Chief Executive Officer of Mainstream Tourism at TUI AG. Prior to this he was the Managing Director for the Northern Region at TUI Travel PLC from 2007 until 2011.

From 2003 until 2007, Lundgren was the Managing Director and CEO of TUI Nordic. He studied Music in Sweden, the UK and USA from 1982 until 1985, furthering his studies at the Stockholm School of Economics in 1993 and in 1996 completing the Programme for Executive Development IMD, in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Recently he hit out at NATS, telling City A.M, that it is not “really fit for purpose” and what happened over the summer was “unacceptable”. He noted that the air traffic control (ATC) tower at Gatwick Airport, sasyjet’s primary hub, has “not been staffed to the level where you should expect it to be” and the situation has “not been good enough.”