easyJet (London Luton) revealed in a regulatory filing on June 30 that it had been “notified by the Haji-Ioannou family concert party” including easyGroup Holdings, that it no longer holds 30% or more of the issued share capital of the airline. Accordingly, it added, an agreement between the two sides on controlling shareholder rules had been terminated.

The family currently owns 29.998% of easyJet, a separate filing issued on the same date showed, down from the more-than-33% stake it used to own.

As previously reported, the family of founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou initially sold a small stake in the company on June 12, for the first time since 2015, reducing it from 33.73% to 32.99% after he failed to expel four board members in an ongoing feud over the carrier's strategy.

Last week, easyJet succeeded in raising around GBP419 million pounds (USD521 million) via a share placement to help steady its finances after it posted deeper losses amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

In separate news, easyJet has launched consultations on plans to close bases at London Stansted, London Southend, and Newcastle International, it said in a statement on June 30. This followed an announcement in late May that it may need to cut staff numbers by up to 30% - about 4,500 jobs - as well as optimise its network and bases as a result of the pandemic.

The Unite union said in its own press release on the same date that the carrier “is intending to make 1,290 cabin crew redundant [in] yet another massive blow for this battered industry.”

The British Airline Pilots' Association (BALPA) said the airline had told it that 727 of its UK-based pilots - equivalent to one in three of its pilots - were also at risk of redundancy.

“Unfortunately the lower demand environment means we need fewer aircraft and have less opportunity for work for our people. We are committed to working constructively with our employee representatives across the network with the aim of minimising job losses as far as possible,” easyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said in the company's statement.

However, BALPA general secretary Brian Stratton called the job cuts “an excessive over-reaction” and added that “easyJet won’t find a supply of pilots waiting to come back when the recovery takes place over the next two years.”

easyjet UK currently has 11 bases in the UK, including the three now due for closure, with a total of 169 aircraft, the ch-aviation Commercial Aviation Aircraft Data module shows. At Stansted it has seven aircraft with 335 crew, at Southend four aircraft and 183 crew, at Newcastle three aircraft with 157 crew.