EasyJet’s chief executive, Johan Lundgren, will step down at the beginning of next year after seven years at the helm of the budget airline.
The carrier is promoting its chief financial officer, Kenton Jarvis, to take his place, with Lundgren to hand over the reins on 1 January 2025. The outgoing boss will stay with the business until mid-May as part of the airline’s “orderly succession plan”.
Lundgren has had an eventful tenure. He became CEO of easyJet at the end of 2017, after serving as second in command at the rival travel firm Tui, and has more than 30 years of experience in the travel industry. His leadership was put to the test two years into his term when pandemic lockdowns grounded plans and put airlines under severe financial strain. It resulted in staff layoffs, and later rehiring as air travel started to recover.
Stephen Hester, the chair, said on Thursday: “We are sad that Johan will retire from easyJet. He has done an excellent job as our CEO since December 2017; steering the company through the immense challenges of the Covid period, and setting up a clear strategy and strong execution plan towards its ambition of ‘being Europe’s most loved airline, winning for customers, shareholders and our people’.
“There is good positive momentum and Johan will be with us to close out the current year, which we hope will be another one of strong progress.”
Lundgren told journalists during a media call that he did not have set plans for life after easyJet, but that he was not planning to defect to another airline. “No, I’m not going to do anything else [in] aviation, I can promise you that.”
Jarvis will take over after three years as easyJet’s CFO, and will get a notable pay rise. His £542,000 annual salary will increase to £800,000, compared with the £770,000 that Lundgren received in 2023.
EasyJet said the rest of Jarvis’s pay package would be structured “in line with its existing policy” for its chief executive, putting him in line for similar payouts to those handed to Lundgren last year. EasyJet paid Lundgren a total of £2.2m in 2023, which included a £1.3m bonus, £48,000 cash in lieu of pension, and £50,000 to cover benefits such as life insurance and travel costs.
Before easyJet, Jarvis worked in a number of roles at Tui, including chief executive of its airline division. Previously he worked at the accounting firm PwC, Airtours Holidays, and held finance roles at the sports group Adidas.
The incoming boss is unlikely to shake up the business. “I’ve been on the board of easyJet for over three years now and have been an active part of co-creating … the current strategy. So I’m 100% committed to the current strategy and also very confident in our ability to deliver on the medium-term targets,” he said.
Details of the planned change at the top came as the group reported a pre-tax loss of £347m for the six months to 31 March, narrowed from losses of £415m a year ago.
Lundgren said: “We have continued to focus on productivity, on growth, and we are pleased to see that we have reduced winter losses by £61m year on year. This result was despite the conflict in the Middle East, which increased fuel costs and impacted demand to the region.”
EasyJet shares were down 6.5% on Thursday at 494p, making it one of the biggest fallers on the FTSE 100.
