Stelios Haji-Ioannou stepping down as easyJet boss

Stelios Haji-Ioannou will resign as chairman of easyJet at its 2003 annual meeting.

Sir Colin Chandler has been appointed as deputy chairman, with immediate effect.

The intention is that he will succeed Mr Haji-Ioannou as chairman next year.

All current executive directors, with the exception of the chief executive and finance director, will resign from the board of easyJet PLC.

They will continue to be, or become, directors of easyJet Airline Company Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary which holds the Air Operators' Certificate.

As a result, the majority of directors of easyJet PLC will be independent.

Mr Haji-Ioannou says: "Since the IPO, easyJet has gone from strength to strength and, as the recent trading statement revealed, I am very confident about its prospects.

"The company has a strong management team led by Ray Webster, the chief executive, who has been with easyJet from the beginning and who has been running the company for the last couple of years."

Mr Haji-Ioannou says: "I am convinced that Ray and his team can continue this strong progress, and this is the appropriate time to plan my stepping-down from the easyJet board in order to concentrate on my new ventures.

"I intend to remain a significant shareholder of this company for a very long time. However, as I have made clear on several occasions in the past, I have no other source of income from easyJet other than disposal of shares and, as I engage in new ventures, I may need to liquidate some of my stock from time to time. As I have said before, I need to sell my past to finance my future."