London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Oct 24, 2025

The battle for Britain’s skies takes a new twist pitting easyJet against Wizz Air

The battle for Britain’s skies takes a new twist pitting easyJet against Wizz Air

Analysis: airline fends off Hungarian interloper in increasingly febrile fight over Gatwick slots
The battle for the post-pandemic holiday skies has taken a new twist, as easyJet launched a £1.2bn fundraiser while announcing it had fended off a takeover bid – widely assumed to be from rival Wizz Air.

EasyJet, the dominant airline at Gatwick , said the “unsolicited approach” from an unnamed bidder was unanimously rejected by its board. Wizz declined to comment but the offer of an “all-share transaction” pointed to the Hungary-based carrier, which has targeted rapid expansion across Europe with a beady eye on England’s leisure market, which London’s second airport serves.

Rebuffing the move, easyJet’s chief executive Johan Lundgren instead said his airline was in fact mulling expansion into territory vacated by the likes of British Airways and would use funds from the £1.2bn rights issue, all being well, for opportunities.

The approach for the budget airline – which is still 25% controlled by its founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou – reflects the increasingly febrile battle for dominance as airlines look to emerge from the worst crisis in their history.

BA, owned by IAG, is doing all it can to set up a lower-cost subsidiary to keep flying from Gatwick and avoid losing any slots to competitors. With BA having halted operations during the pandemic, chief executive Sean Doyle said this week it would consider selling slots if “advanced negotiations” with unions failed – but observers deem it unlikely that the airline would cede valuable London territory to easyJet or Wizz. Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary said BA’s plan was “doomed to fail”, adding: “Will BA ever successfully set up a low-cost airline? No. BA has had six or seven goes at it.”

After the carnage wrought by the pandemic on the airline industry, BA and easyJet are struggling more than their lower-cost rivals. Much of BA’s long-haul and lucrative transatlantic flying is still effectively ruled out. And easyJet is suffering from its reliance on the UK at a time when restrictions in Europe have eased, with a corresponding rebound in EU short-haul traffic. Little wonder that Lundgren again hit out at UK government policy of “expensive PCR testing and confusion” on Wednesday.

The rights issue announced on Wednesday, the second in a year, means easyJet has called on shareholders for more than £1.6bn during the pandemic. Lundgren characterised the need for more cash as both “defensive and offensive”, with the money shoring up the airline through a drawn-out recovery, should summer 2022 be as bad for airlines as this. But he said it could also be used for “opportunities” should recovery allow – moving into markets vacated by the “retrenchment of legacy carriers”, including, he suggested, Gatwick slots.

Dream on, others think. “EasyJet’s clearly got appetite to get slots at Gatwick. But it would be very surprising strategically if IAG were willing to let go of any,” said HSBC’s Andrew Lobbenberg. While BA’s Heathrow operation traditionally generates the big profits, added competition at Gatwick could still threaten its bottom line.

“The reality is that Wizz is encroaching more and more on easyJet’s territory,” said John Strickland of JLS Consulting. “And part of BA’s rationale for looking at how they operate and at their cost base at Gatwick is the awareness of Wizz’s likely arrival in force at Gatwick.”

A Wizz bid for EasyJet would make sense, he said: “They’ve made clear they’ve got sizeable ambitions for Gatwick, and [chief executive] József Váradi, like O’Leary, has made clear they don’t believe easyJet would be independent in the medium term.”

Beyond the slot portfolio at Gatwick (and Luton), as fellow operators of Airbus fleets, “Wizz could be interested by easyJet’s order book as well,” said Lobbenberg. “They’re starting to talk about mid-term aspirations to go as far as 600 aircraft to draw comparison with Ryanair – they’d need to buy more planes.”

An offer from a rival airline could be a good destabilising tactic, some suggest, at a time when easyJet has already suffered some internal turbulence, pandemic aside: a number of directors quit in the past year, including chief commercial officer Robert Carey defecting to a role as president of Wizz.

For now, easyJet said, the bidder has dropped its interest – although Lundgren did not rule out the possibility of mergers or acquisitions, should other better offers emerge.
EasyJet shares fell 9% on Thursday and it is now trading at less than half its pre-Covid value. Haji-Ioannou

has indicated that he won’t invest any more money in it until it cancels its Airbus orders for more A321s – meaning his 25% stake will be diluted to 15% after the rights issue. Ryanair’s shares have held roughly firm from early 2020 while Wizz’s has increased over the pandemic – even after the biggest shareholders, US private equity firm Indigo Partners, offloaded half its stake in March to retain just 8.5%.

For Gatwick – which suffered the biggest percentage drop in passenger numbers of any major European airport during Covid – the idea of airlines vying for position in its short-haul leisure market will be welcome. Gatwick has relaunched plans to increase capacity to 750 million passengers a year, however detached from current reality that appears.

Lobbenberg said: “It’s had an absolutely shocking year, but if you look at the London airports’ pecking order, after Heathrow, the unit revenues from Gatwick are clearly stronger than what you can get from Stansted or Luton. I would be very confident that Gatwick will recover.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
China and Russia Deploy Seductive Espionage Networks to Infiltrate U.S. Tech Sector
Apple’s ‘iPhone Air’ Collapses After One Month — Another Major Misstep for the Tech Giant
Graham Potter Begins New Chapter as Sweden Head Coach on Short-Term Deal
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Alleges Poison Plot via Chocolate and Jam
Lakestar to Halt External Fundraising as Investor in Revolut and Spotify
U.S. Innovation Ranking Under Scrutiny as China Leads Output Outputs but Ranks 10th
Three Men Arrested in London on Suspicion of Spying for Russia
Porsche Reverses EV Strategy as New CEO Bets on Petrol and Hybrids
Singapore’s Prime Minister Warns of ‘Messy’ Transition to Post-American Global Order
Andreessen Horowitz Sets Sights on Ten-Billion-Dollar Fund for Tech Surge
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
‘Frightening’ First Night in Prison for Sarkozy: Inmates Riot and Shout ‘Little Nicolas’
White House Announces No Imminent Summit Between Trump and Putin
US and Qatar Warn EU of Trade and Energy Risks from Tough Climate Regulation
Apple Challenges EU Digital Markets Act Crackdown in Landmark Court Battle
Nicolas Sarkozy begins five-year prison term at La Santé in Paris
Japan stocks surge to record as Sanae Takaichi becomes Prime Minister
This Is How the 'Heist of the Century' Was Carried Out at the Louvre in Seven Minutes: France Humiliated as Crown with 2,000 Diamonds Vanishes
China Warns UK of ‘Consequences’ After Delay to London Embassy Approval
France’s Wealthy Shift Billions to Luxembourg and Switzerland Amid Tax and Political Turmoil
"Sniper Position": Observation Post Targeting 'Air Force One' Found Before Trump’s Arrival in Florida
Shouting Match at the White House: 'Trump Cursed, Threw Maps, and Told Zelensky – "Putin Will Destroy You"'
Windows’ Own ‘Siri’ Has Arrived: You Can Now Talk to Your Computer
Thailand and Singapore Investigate Cambodian-Based Prince Group as U.S. and U.K. Sanctions Unfold
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
×