BUDGET AIRLINE CALLS IN HEADHUNTERS TO FIND NEW CHAIRMAN
By Tracey Boles
Easyjet, the low-cost airline founded by Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has appointed headhunters to look for a new chairman.
The current incumbent, Sir Colin Chandler, intends to leave the Luton-based airline he has steered since 2003 when he is 70. He is 68.
Aerospace veteran Chandler will help appoint his successor together with Stelios, Easyjet chief executive Andrew Harrison and the senior non-executive director Sir David Michels.
The airline is believed to be looking for a new chairman who ideally has a consumer-based background.
It has already held early-stage talks with several possible candidates.
One of them is Mike Turner, the former chief executive of BAE Systems, who knows Chandler from his days at the defence company.
In 2003, Stelios resigned as chairman of the airline he set up.
Easyjet, alongside Ryanair, has spearheaded the low-cost travel revolution that has swept through the aviation sector.
But like other airlines it has warned that storm clouds are gathering in the face of soaring fuel prices coupled with the economic slowdown.
Last week the airline said it expected the strong growth in total revenue per seat seen during this summer to moderate in the winter months due in part to the weakening consumer environment in Britain.
The company predicted a 2 to 4 per cent fall in airline travel this winter and added that it had reined in its growth plans.
