The family of the founder of British airline EasyJet made the monumental decision on Thursday to sell a small portion of its share in the company. According to a regulatory filing made during the same day, the Haji-Ioannou family’s stake in the company was reduced from 26.7% to 25.3% following the decision.
While the family remains EasyJet’s largest shareholder, their share in the company has declined significantly since last year, when they initially reduced their stake from 34% as the result of another share sale.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the Haji-Ioannou family has been openly critical of the company, publicly criticizing EasyJet’s pandemic strategy and publicly calling for the company to cancel an order that it had placed for a large fleet of new Airbus jets.
Founded in 1995, EasyJet is a British budget airline established by Greek-Cypriot entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou. The company has since grown into a multi-faceted brand, with other business units including EasyCruise, a low-cost cruise line, EasyHotel, a chain of affordable hotels across Europe, and EasyCar, a low-cost peer2peer car-sharing scheme.
Following the announcement of the sale of shares by the Haji-Ioannou family, shares in EasyJet traded at 989 pence on Thursday morning. While still below the pre-pandemic figure of around 1,500 pence, they have risen 19% in the year to date as COVID-19 restrictions loosened.
