EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has stepped up his campaign to have the airline’s £4.5 billion order for 107 A320neos cancelled, according to reports.
Sky News claims Sir Stelios will make an announcement that he will pay a reward to any ‘whistleblower’ in the easyJet ranks who supplies information leading to a substantial cancellation with Airbus. The reward will be offered if 100 of the 107 aircraft orders are cancelled.
While the British businessman is the largest shareholder, he doesn’t have a controlling stake and the outburst is the latest in war of words with the business’ management.
Sky stated that Sir Stelios will ask for information to be submitted to him in confidence and via email, and that any past or current easyJet or Airbus employee can contact him. He will also ask for information from suppliers to the airline. Sky News says that he will announce that “the overwhelming evidence is that easyJet requires neither more loss-making planes nor massive liabilities” and “establish why easyJet directors still want to pursue this route”.
EasyJet previously said it would make a decision on its Airbus order on 22 May, and has responded to the reports.
“As we have previously stated, the board firmly rejects any insinuation that easyJet was involved in any impropriety.
“EasyJet has maintained the highest standards of governance and scrutiny in respect of its aircraft procurement processes.
“Given the significance of the potential transaction, easyJet appointed external independent accountants BDO to carry out an on-going review of the controls surrounding the fleet selection process which culminated in the 2013 Airbus Contract. The audit report confirmed that robust procurement, project management and governance processes were in place and had been followed,” an easyJet spokesperson told Simple Flying.
Sir Stelios has been on the war path in his attempts to have this order cancelled. He has been bullishly demanding the order be dropped for several months now, threatening to oust directors and even the CEO if his voice is not heard.
“If this £4.5 billion liability to Airbus is preserved – and not cancelled – by the easyJet board then, I regret to report, easyJet will run out of money around August 2020, perhaps even earlier,” Sir Stelios has previously stated.
“I will certainly not be throwing good money after bad. For the avoidance of doubt, I will not inject any fresh equity in easyJet whilst the Airbus liability is in place.”
At the beginning of April, the airline deferred delivery of 24 aircraft due to be delivered between this year and 2022, but as yet, no planes have been removed from its order books.
“Terminating the Airbus contract is the only chance current shareholders have to maintain any value in their shares,” said Sir Stelios.
“If easyJet terminates the Airbus contract, then it does not need loans from the UK taxpayer and it has the best chance to survive and thrive in the future with some injection of additional equity provided for by the markets.
“But if easyJet stumbles along whilst taking UK taxpayers’ money as loans only to pass it on to Airbus, it will have to raise fresh equity anyway in the next three to six months – reducing the value of our current shareholdings to close to zero.”
