Ray Webster is to step down as ceo of budget carrier easyJet.
In his ten years in the post, Mr Webster has helped turn easyJet into Europe's second biggest low cost carrier and an airline increasingly used by business travellers.
During his stewardship, easyJet bought BA's low cost carrier, Go, purchased 120 Airbus A319s giving the airline largest fleet among low cost carriers, set up new hubs in Berlin and Basle and vastly expanded the number of his airline's destinations and passengers.
Mr Webster will stay on as ceo until a successor is appointed and then remain with the airline “carrying out specified tasks for the company” until November 2006.
“Building and developing easyJet has been the highlight of my long career in the airline business. In the last ten years, easyJet has extended the chance for a much wider number of people to travel in Europe and I'm pleased to have played a role in that,” he said in a statement.
EasyJet also announced that its founder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou will be retutrning to the board as a non-executive director. He replaces easyGroup representative Amir Eilon who will not seek re-election after six years on the board.
But Mr Haji-Ioannou denied that his return heralded a planned return of the publicly quoted company into private ownership. “I would like to reiterate my earlier position that I have no current intentions to take the company private,” he said.
ACTE Forum in Amsterdam
The next forum of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) in Amsterdam on June 2 will debate procurement strategies and look at key issues in the organisation of meetings.
These include the need for transparency and the increasing merger of business travel management with the organisation of meetings and conferences.
The keynote speaker is Travor Soames, a solictor and expert on EU law who will talk on EU regulations and the travel industry.