EasyJet rejects 'gravy train' claim

The ongoing feud between easyJet and its founder rumbled on today as the British airline’s chairman denied its directors were riding the “gravy train”.

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who with his family owns 37.5% of easyJet shares, has hit out at a pay deal which could award 10 executives shares worth £8m over the next three years.

But Sir Michael Rake told investors there were “numerous inaccuracies” in Sir Stelios’s recent comments about the airline and accused the major shareholder of launching “increasingly personalised” attacks on individuals in the company.

Sir Michael hit back at Sir Stelios’s comments that the “gravy train of £180m free shares issued over the last decade must come to an end” and said: “75% of these shares were pre-flotation shares that were allocated whilst Stelios was chairman.”