EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou stepped up his attack on the budget airline yesterday after he threatened to withdraw the rights to the “easy” brand in a row over punctuality.
Sir Stelios – who quit the board in May in a spat over strategy but owns the “easy” brand – said in a letter to chairman Mike Rake the airline’s reputation was being eroded in a matter of months because of delays and cancellations.
EasyJet is bringing in at least three extra planes and crew this summer to minimise the impact on customers and staff, although some passengers could find flights rescheduled.
New chief executive Carolyn McCall said the temporary action to resolve “crewing issues” would lift costs by up to 3% during the current financial year.
The firm, which had a worse punctuality record than Air Zimbabwe at Gatwick in June, has also blamed air traffic control strikes in France for its recent problems.
Sir Stelios said the real reason for the punctuality issues were operational problems.
He hit out at former chief executive Andy Harrison for slashing costs over winter, leaving the firm with too few staff to cover its schedule.
Sir Stelios said: “He could have prevented this mess by admitting his mistake and only selling a summer schedule in terms of number of flights per day which was in line with the number of crew available and not the 10% year-on-year growth rates in passengers he was advertising to the City in order to justify his bonuses.”
The entrepreneur is engaged in a long-running dispute with the easyJet board over its growth plans.
The founder – whose family owns a combined 38% stake – wants the firm to stop buying aircraft and begin dividend payouts.
He added: “Rest assured that if the necessary steps are not taken to improve the performance to an acceptable level such that the goodwill and reputation of the easyJet brand can start to be rebuilt, I will not hesitate to terminate the licence.”
EasyJet has just finished a court battle with Sir Stelios over the use of the licence for non-airline products such as car hire. It believes he has no right to terminate the agreement on punctuality grounds.
The firm acknowledged the crew issues but added that almost two-thirds of its planes travelled through French airspace, where controllers had been prioritising long-haul flights and aircraft taking off and landing in France during industrial action. Despite the disruption and a £65million hit from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcanic ash cloud, easyJet expects to make pre-tax profits of £100-£150million for the full year.
Revenue was up 5.3% to £759.2million over the three months to the end of June, while rival British Airways was hit by strikes in its long-running dispute with trade union Unite.
Earlier this week, easyJet apologised for cancelling some weekend flights between Inverness and Bristol.
There are normally daily flights between the two cities, but passengers scheduled to fly last weekend were told their trips had been scrapped. It is understood that travellers planning to fly on that route will be similarly affected over the next two weekends.
A spokeswoman for easyJet said the cancellations were made as a result of a strike by air traffic controllers in France, Spain and Greece.
EasyJet shares closed down 7% yesterday at 403.6p.