When the first Easyjet flight took off from Luton to Glasgow exactly 30 years ago tomorrow, the price of one-way tickets was £29.99 – at the time, British Airways fares from London to Scotland were a minimum of £120.
In the fledgling airline’s adverts, the catchline said it was ‘making flying as affordable as a pair of jeans’ (a pair of Levi’s back then also cost £29.99).
Unsurprisingly the cheap flights on eye-catching orange planes proved a massive hit – and it helped that new carrier’s founder was charismatic, energetic and young, aged just 28.
Greek-Cypriot entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou, referred to by one and all simply as Stelios, was the perfect figurehead for the groundbreaking new airline.
He was a man on a mission to take on national carriers such as British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France, which he felt had been getting away with inflated fares for years.
Born into a wealthy ship-owning family, Stelios had come up with the idea for his airline out of sheer frustration with high ticket prices.
He had worked out that to visit a Greek island such as Kefalonia or Crete it was sometimes cheaper to buy a package holiday – with charter flights, hotel and transfers included – than to book seats on scheduled flights.
This was, he rightly thought, bonkers.
Easyjet’s founder, Greek-Cypriot entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou,gets ready to depart for Glasgow from Luton on the airline’s first flight
Stelios Haji-Ioannou was a man on a mission to take on national carriers such as British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France, which he felt had been getting away with inflated fares for years
Easyjet cabin crew model their onboard uniform with a model aircraft featuring the airline’s telephone booking number at the time.
At that time in the US, no-frills carrier Southwest Airlines was beginning to do well, and Stelios studied its low-cost business strategy.
With the handy boost of a £5 million loan from his father – and after toying with the name of Stelair – Stelios took inspiration from Southwest’s winning formula… and the rest is aviation history.
Here’s how things have changed at the airline since that momentous day, three decades ago.
Passenger numbers soar
On that first flight, EZY121 from Luton to Glasgow, there were 122 passengers, including Stelios, on a leased Boeing 737-200 – Easyjet did not buy its first plane until April 1996.
In its first year it carried 40,000 passengers. Such was the airline’s popularity, however, that a mere six years later this figure had ballooned to 10 million, before reaching 50 million by 2010.
Last year Easyjet topped 100 million passengers – which compares with 46 million at BA.
It’s now the UK’s biggest airline, and easily saw off BA’s early attempt to emulate its no-frills model in 1998 with a subsidiary named Go Fly. Such was Go Fly’s failure that Easyjet bought its entire fleet in 2002.
Actress Lorraine Chase helped launch EasyJet’s new low-cost service to Edinburgh and Glasgow from Luton Airport. The airline aimed to fly passengers to Scotland for £29 – less than the cost of a pair of jeans – and Luton Airport declared themselves to be delighted with the chance to be involved in the venture
A few routes added
It wasn’t until April 1996 that Easyjet introduced its first international flight – from Luton to Amsterdam.
Until then it had focused on Luton to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Nice and Barcelona were soon to follow later that year.
Over the decades the airline has branched out with routes to destinations as varied as the Azores, Djerba in Tunisia, Tel Aviv and Moscow – although services to the latter have been cancelled for some time for geopolitical reasons.
Now it operates 355 aircraft out of 164 airports covering 38 countries and offering 1,207 routes.
Its furthest service, which began earlier this year, is a six-hour, 2,400-mile flight from Gatwick to Sal, one of Cape Verde’s islands off the west coast of Africa.
Employee Numbers
It began with 70 staff, but these days it’s a huge business with about 12,000 employees and an annual turnover of £9.3 billion.
It wasn’t until April 1996 that Easyjet introduced its first international flight – from Luton to Amsterdam. Until then it had focused on Luton to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Nice and Barcelona were soon to follow later that year
Internet revolution
Initially Easyjet took bookings over the telephone, and its call centre number was emblazoned on the fuselage of all its aircraft.
At the time, Stelios said: ‘The internet is for nerds – it will never make money for my business.’ However, his position on this soon shifted, and the website easyjet.com was launched in 1997.
At first it was simply used as a way for customers to look up fares before calling to make bookings.
The technology was swiftly improved, though, and from April 1998 tickets could be bought online.
Uniforms smartened up
Back in November 1995, the cabin crew wore baggy black jeans (rumoured to be sourced from Tesco) and orange polo shirts from high street fashion store United Colours of Benetton.
Now staff wear smart charcoal-grey uniforms with orange trimmings and either orange or white shirts. Female staff have orange and grey neckties.
Plane cabin crew, Drew Brown (top left), Ben Goodson, Caroline Baker (bottom left) and Sarah Chapman during a photocall to show the airline’s new uniform – which will be launched at the end of September – at easyLand, easyJet’s Head Office, at Luton Airport
Makeover at Luton
Luton Airport, from where many Easyjet flights depart, used to be the butt of jokes.
It famously featured in a Campari advert, in which a suave gentleman attempts to chat up the actress/model Lorraine Chase in a tropical holiday destination by asking her: ‘Were you truly wafted here from paradise?’
To which she replies in a strong cockney accent: ‘Nooo, Luton Airport.’
Ok, it’s hardly super-slick now, and can get extremely crowded.
But two years ago a new rail link was opened, called Luton Dart, offering fast connections into London, which has made access easier.
And over the past two years more than £30 million has been spent on improvements to its terminals, with better retail and food-and-drink offerings, plus more seating.
Meanwhile, Easyjet’s expansion has seen it set up operations in several other UK airports – it now has ten UK bases, with the most recent being at Southend Airport, which opened earlier this year.
Luton Airport, from where many Easyjet flights depart, used to be the butt of jokes
From Boeing to Airbus
The airline launched using US-made Boeing planes, but in 2003, in a major expansion to its operations, Easyjet switched to Europe-made Airbus with an order for 240 new A319s.
And the company has just invested in a further 290 modern and more fuel-efficient Airbus A320neo family aircraft, being delivered up to 2034.
Stelios takes a back seat
After falling out with the carrier’s leadership, Stelios ceased involvement in the day-to-day operations of his airline in 2010.
And in 2021 he allowed his share holding in Easyjet to drop from 25 per cent to 15 per cent, which meant he became unable to veto decisions by the board.
Add-ons added
Before 2012 the airline did not offer seat allocation – if you wanted a specific one, you needed to be at the front of the queue for boarding.
After falling out with the carrier’s leadership, Stelios ceased involvement in the day-to-day operations of his airline in 2010. And in 2021 he allowed his share holding in Easyjet to drop from 25 per cent to 15 per cent, which meant he became unable to veto decisions by the board
In 2006, ‘Speedy Boarding’ was introduced so passengers could pay extra to get on first, effectively jumping the queue.
Then, from 2012, along with seat allocation charges, extra add-ons also came in for ‘Up Front’ and ‘Extra Legroom’ seats.
Hold luggage charges had started in 2007, and charges for large cabin bags began in 2021.
Now only a small bag that fits under the seat in front is allowed on for free.
There are additional costs for a dedicated bag drop (so you do not have to queue for as long as others) and for fast-track security.
Slogans still cheesy
The company’s slogan in the beginning was: ‘This is Generation Easyjet.’
It moved on to become ‘The web’s favourite airline’ (playing on British Airways’ former slogan of ‘The world’s favourite airline’) and also ‘To fly, to save’ (again playing on a BA slogan, of ‘To fly, to serve’).
The company’s slogan in the beginning was: ‘This is Generation Easyjet.’ It moved on to become ‘The web’s favourite airline’ (playing on British Airways’ former slogan of ‘The world’s favourite airline’) and also ‘To fly, to save’ (again playing on a BA slogan, of ‘To fly, to serve’)
The current slogan is ‘NextGen Easyjet’, echoing the original one.
Culinary stalemate
Part of the airline’s low-cost model has been always to charge for food and drink on board – and that will never change.
Menus have improved over time, however, and now its offerings include chicken korma and basmati rice, penne pomodoro and mini pizzas.
Brand expansion
Stelios was quick to develop the brand and there are now no fewer than 360 official Easy spin-offs, including EasyBBQ.com, EasyCinema.com, EasyHolidays.co.uk and EasyHotel.com.
There is even an EasyBitcoin app. See the long list of Easy brands at easy.com.
But prices stay low
It’s amazing, but Easyjet fares are often cheaper in real terms now than they were in 1995. The original Luton-Glasgow fare was £29.99, and that same price can now get you all the way to Marrakech.
With inflation over the past 30 years, the £29.99 of 1995 would now be £62.01.
Indeed, Easyjet says that ‘fares on some of key routes we still operate today, like Glasgow, Belfast, Amsterdam, Milan and Barcelona, have fallen by over 50 per cent in real terms’ since 1995.
Tom Chesshyre is author of How Low Can You Go? Round Europe For 1p Each Way (Plus Tax).
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