Fastjet CEO to step down after claims of overheads

Dar es Salaam. Fastjet chief executive officer Mr Ed Winter is expected to step down this week, less than a month since its second-largest shareholder Stelios Haji-Ioannou called for his dismissal.

Mr Haji-Ioannou, the EasyJet founder who owns a 12 per cent stake in Tanzania-based low-cost airline through a private investment vehicle, called in February for a general meeting to dismiss Mr Winter immediately. Mr Winter is due to step down on Friday 18 March, the London-based The Guardian reported yesterday.

Mr Haji-Ioannou had also called for the removal of general counsel Krista Bates and the appointment of non-executive chairman Mr Colin Child to an executive position.

He said Mr Winter had created significant overheads for the company, resulting in a high-cost base.

Fastjet said Bates would step down immediately and that Mr Child would be appointed executive chairman until a new chief executive is appointed. The company declined to comment further, the newspaper reported.

Last month, Mr Winter announced he would step down as chief executive, pending a successor being found. However, a spokesman for Haji-Ioannou, who helped set up the Tanzania-based airline, said it was time for a “clean break.”

In a letter to Fastjet’s chairman, the EasyGroup boss claimed: “The company has a ridiculously high-cost base ... Winter has burnt some £80m in the last three years. We believe the company will run out of cash some time in 2016. We now have about six months left to steady this ship. Time is of the essence.”

Mr Haji-Ioannou, a longstanding critic of management at EasyJet, has balked at costs including a Fastjet head office at Gatwick. He said: “This is not only a high-cost location, when revenues are reported in local Tanzanian currency, but is also 4,750 miles away from Tanzania where the main operations and customers of Fastjet are located.”

He added that Fastjet was making unrealistic revenue forecasts for a fleet of six aircraft.