easyJet is a low cost airline officially known as easyJet Airline Company PLC. The company is based at London Luton Airport. It operates frequent scheduled services for leisure and business passengers and serves more than 200 routes between more than 60 European airports. It was founded by easyGroup entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou, but it is now listed on the London Stock Exchange and easyGroup owns only a minority stake. It is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. easyJet and its Republic of Ireland-based rival Ryanair are by far the largest low cost airlines in Europe, and the rivalry between them is intense and sometimes vituperative (especially on Ryanair's side from its high profile chief executive Michael O'Leary). The two companies have slightly different strategies. easyJet flies mainly to leading airports while Ryanair uses far more secondary airports to reduce costs. easyJet places more focus on attracting business travellers as well as leisure travellers, although all its aircraft have single-class cabins. Ryanair makes much of the fact that easyJet's average fares are higher and its average punctuality is consistently lower. This is mainly due to the different range of airports used and Ryanair routinely scheduling flights to take thirty minutes longer than required. As of September 2005, Ryanair flies more passengers, but easyJet has a higher turnover, leading both of them to claim to be "Europe's number one low cost airline". The airline was established on 18 October 1995 and started operations on 10 November 1995. It was launched by Stelios Haji-Ioannou with two leased Boeing 737-200 aircraft wet leased from GB Airways and operating two routes: London Luton to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Its early marketing strategy was based on 'making flying as affordable as a pair of jeans' and urged travellers to 'cut out the travel agent'. The latter caused much outrage amongst the travel agents. In March 1998 it purchased a 40% stake in TEA Switzerland, renamed EasyJet Switzerland. EasyJet was floated on the London stock exchange in October 2000. Operations were boosted in 2002 with the acquisition of rival airline, London Stansted based Go Fly. In December 2003 easyJet announced it would open a new hub in Berlin, at Schönefeld Airport, from which it started flying on 11 routes from May 2004. EasyJet's main shareholder is Stelios Haji-Ioannou. It also holds a 49% stake in EasyJet Switzerland. EasyJet is claimed to be a more business-oriented airline than Ryanair, since it flies to major airports (as opposed to secondary airports) and has recently removed limits on hand luggage weight (within reason). This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "EasyJet". |