8/13/2019 10 Stelios Haji

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Stelios Haji-Ionnou and easyJet

One firm that has successfully followed the

low-price strategy is easyJet, founded by

Stelios Haji-Ioannou, a graduate of London

Business School, in !!" with #" million

borrowed from his father, a $ree% shipping

tycoon& 'opying, similar operations in the (S), and *yanair flying out of Ireland,

easyJet was one of the first +low-cost airlines in the (, f lying from Luton to

Scotland& He then launched similar low-cost, no-frills ser.ices to continental /urope&

0he company has transformed the /uropean air tra.el mar%et and has spurned

many ri.al imitators& easyJet was floated on the Stoc% 1ar%et in 2333 at 43p a

share, ma%ing Stelios #253 million profit&

+6ou start the business as a dream, you ma%e it your passion for a while and then

you get e7perienced managers to run it because its not as much fun as starting& I

thin% theres a lot to be said about starting a business and a lot to be said about

running a business when its mature&(Sunday Times2! October 23338

) central strategy of being low price is being low cost and that has a number of

implications for how easyJet and its ri.als are run& Low cost comes from two dri.ing

principles - +sweating the assets and high operating efficiency& easyJet flies its

Boeing 949s for hours a day, four hours longer than B)& 0heir pilots fly !33 hours

a year, "3: more than B) pilots&

In terms of operating efficiency, it means;

)ircraft fly out of low cost airports& 0hese are normally not the major airport

ser.ing any destination and can be some distance from them