EasyJet shakes up board after difficult summer

EasyJet has announced a shake-up of its board, with three directors leaving as the airline’s management aims to move on from this summer’s disruption.

Former Google executive Nick Leeder, who joined the board in 2019, steps down at the end of September, while Julie Southern and Andreas Bierwirth will not seek re-election at the company’s annual meeting in 2023.

The departing trio will be replaced by Harald Eisenächer, Detlef Trefzger and Ryanne Van der Eijk.

EasyJet chairman Stephen Hester said the new appointees would bring “extensive airline and travel industry experience, with extra focus on operations and logistics, customer experience, digital and data”.

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“This, combined with their European outlook will further strengthen the board,” he said.

Eisenächer is a former Lufthansa and Deutsche Telekom executive who recently worked for a Danish airfare technology company, while Trefzger has just stepped down as chief executive officer of Swiss logistics giant Kuehne + Nagel. Ms Van der Eijk has served 20 years at KLM.

Mr Hester himself is a veteran of the City of London with a reputation as a turnaround specialist, who was appointed easyJet’s chairman 12 months ago.

Delays and disruption

The board changes follow a difficult summer for EasyJet, which was caught up in the barrage of flight cancellations, delays and disruption in May and June that marred the return of mass travel following two years of border restrictions.

The airline, which pinned much of the blame on staff sickness and issues across the aviation supply chain such as air traffic control delays, was forced to slightly pare back its summer schedule in early July to inject greater resilience into its operations.

Its operations have since stabilised, and cancellations have fallen back to normal levels in recent weeks.

Mr Hester and chief executive Johan Lundgren were boosted last month when Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder and largest shareholder of EasyJet, called a truce in a long-running and bitter battle with the airline’s management over the size of its fleet, and backed a multibillion-dollar order from passenger jet manufacturer Airbus.

But the outlook for EasyJet and the rest of the industry remains challenging.

Carriers are exposed to the rising cost of jet fuel following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while the darkening economic outlook across Europe has raised questions over whether the huge demand for travel this summer is sustainable.

EasyJet’s shares, which slipped 2 per cent by Wednesday lunchtime in London, have fallen 40 per cent this year, more than British Airways owner IAG and Ryanair, which have each lost about 30 per cent. Stock of Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air has fallen more than 50 per cent. — Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022