Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Stelios Haji-Ioannou was born in Athens, Greece, on 14 February 1967, the second of three children of Loucas and Nedi Haji-Ioannou (née Misirli). He has an elder brother, Polys, and a younger sister, Clelia. Both of his siblings have a large stake in easyJet. His father's family originates from the village of Pedoulas high in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus, while his mother is from the village of Laneia at the foot of the mountains. After his secondary education in Athens, he studied economics at the London School of Economics, graduating with a BSc in 1987. He went on to obtain an MSc in Shipping, Trade & Finance from City University Business School. He was later awarded four honorary doctorates from City University Business School, Liverpool John Moores University, Newcastle Business School, and Cranfield University.

Early career

Haji-Ioannou started working in 1988 for his father's already successful shipping business, Troodos Shipping Co Ltd. At 25, Haji-Ioannou received £30 million from his father, that he used to set up his own shipping company, Stelmar Shipping. Haji-Ioannou floated the company on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001. In 2005, Stelmar Shipping was sold to the OSG Group for approximately $1.3 billion.

"Easy" companies

Haji-Ioannou started EasyJet in 1995 when he was 28 years old, running a service between Luton and Scotland. In 2000, EasyJet PLC was partially floated on the London Stock Exchange. In September 2021, Haji-Ioannou's stake in EasyJet was diluted from 25.3% to 15.3%. In July 2026, EasyJet accepted a buyout offer from Apollo Global Management, valuing the company at £5.7 billion. At the time, Haji-Ioannou and his family owned about 15% of the airline, worth approximately £855 million.

Haji-Ioannou conducts business via his private investment vehicle, the EasyGroup, which owns the "Easy" brand and licenses it to the various "Easy"-branded ventures, including the airline. Haji-Ioannou continues to extend his business interests, mainly in the field of travel and leisure by encouraging entrepreneurs to adopt the "Easy" brand for their companies.

EasyJet PLC is one of Europe’s largest airlines with a fleet of 356 aircraft carrying 93.4 million passengers annually (2025 figures).

Other travel/leisure-related businesses include:

EasyCar, which offers a peer-to-peer car sharing scheme as well as low cost car rental in 2,000 locations globally

EasyBus, which offers low cost bus transport between London/Paris/Geneva airports and their respective city centres

EasyHotel, which offers low cost accommodation in city centres across Europe

EasyFoodstore was a concept that was trialled with a view to offering discounted, "white-label" groceries to low-income and benefit dependent groups. As of late 2021, its only location has closed.

EasyGym which offers low cost, no-contract gym memberships at 16 locations in the UK and five in France, while looking to expand further inside the EU.

EasyProperty which offers an online service to homeowners and prospective buyers as well landlords and tenants.

EasyCruise was a low-cost cruise line started in 2004. It was sold in August 2009 to Greek ferry operator Hellenic Seaways for £9 million and ran until it went defunct in 2010. In December 2024, EasyCruise became a cruise selling website.

EasyCoffee owns a number of self-service coffee machines including a cafe in Central London.

EasyStorage offers low cost storage, sometimes referred to as Self Storage. Customers pay a sensible margin for storage and then pay for all the extras as they need them. These would be packing materials, packing, insurance, as well as collection and delivery.

EasyInternetcafé was Europe's largest chain of Internet cafés and was the holder of the record for the world's largest Internet café. It went defunct in 2009.

Haji-Ioannou has lived in Monaco since his family moved there when he was a teenager.

In the 2006 Birthday Honours, Haji-Ioannou, who holds both Cypriot and British citizenship, received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for "services to entrepreneurship".

Haji-Ioannou was a member of the New Enterprise Council, a group set up to advise the Conservative Party on business policy. He stated at the time that this appointment did not reflect his political affiliations, adding, "I agreed to be included in the group of entrepreneurs because I was assured it will be non-partisan. [There is] not much difference between left and right any more."

In an April 2010 letter to the Daily Telegraph, Haji-Ioannou joined 23 other UK business leaders, including Marks & Spencer's Stuart Rose and Next's Simon Wolfson, criticising the Brown government's plans to raise National Insurance contribution rates.

The character of Omar Baba in the BBC comedy series Come Fly With Me is reportedly based on Haji-Ioannou.

In 2018, he filed an infringement claim against Netflix over their series Easy in a UK court, saying that use of the name breaches the Easy Group's European trademarks.

His charitable foundation, the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, supports education, as well as entrepreneurial and environmental initiatives through the provision of funding and advice in the UK, Greece and Cyprus. It also sponsors annual awards with cash prizes to entrepreneurs in the UK, Greece and Cyprus.

In March 2026, it was announced that the Sir Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, would donate €10 million to healthcare on small Greek islands, committing to funding the retention of 80 doctors on 47 remote Greek islands for 7 years.