The boss of Easyjet is to resign after guiding the airline through the pandemic.
Johan Lundgren will be replaced by finance chief Kenton Jarvis early next year.
The pair worked together at rival Tui, where Lundgren rose to deputy chief executive before taking the helm of Easyjet in 2017, replacing Carolyn McCall, who is now head of ITV.
But Lundgren’s tenure has not been easy.
Easyjet suffered major turbulence during the pandemic as lockdowns and travel restrictions brought the industry to its knees.
Departures: Easyjet boss Johan Lundgren to be replaced by finance chief Kenton Jarvis early next year
He then had to fight for his job after Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder and largest shareholder, tried to have him fired.
When asked if he regretted anything, he said, “God, yes.” You don’t do this unless you also think it should have been done better.
“But the things that really matter we did well.”
Lundgren landed in trouble in 2019 when he raised the ticket price to Madrid to £1,000 after two British teams qualified for that year’s soccer Champions League final.
He said the increase was driven by the “huge” increase in demand.
The group posted losses of £350m for the six months to the end of March.
This was down from losses of £411 million in the same period the previous year.
Easyjet has pinned its hopes on another record summer.
It will be boosted by new bases in Birmingham and Alicante and growing demand for packages.
But Share fell 6 per cent, or 31.7p, to 497.7p yesterday.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mold said: “The negative share price reaction implies the market doesn’t approve and investors wanted an outsider to turn things around.”
