Who is the new owner of Easyjet and what plans does he have for the airline?

The British low-cost airline easyJet has become the property of the US investment fund Apollo Global Management after its purchase during this month of August.

The operation, valued at 5.7 billion pounds (approximately 6.653 billion euros) at a rate of 7.15 pounds per share, means the company's delisting from the London Stock Exchange. The agreement comes after an intense summer bidding war in which another investment fund, Castlelake, withdrew its proposal.

For Lanzarote, this operation is of vital importance as the orange airline currently operates nearly twenty direct connections between César Manrique Airport and the United Kingdom and continental Europe.

The airline offers connections from Lanzarote to the United Kingdom in London (Gatwick and Luton), Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Belfast, and Edinburgh.

It also has direct flights from Lanzarote to key cities on the continent such as Paris, Bordeaux, Nantes, and Lyon in France; Milan (Malpensa) in Italy; Basel and Geneva in Switzerland.

Future plans and strategy of the new owners

According to the details communicated after the agreement, Apollo plans to maintain the easyJet brand, the operational structure, and the business strategy focused on tourism and low-cost links to key destinations in southern Europe. 

However, the investment fund plans to undertake a financial restructuring to optimize costs, maintain the pace of fleet renewal towards more efficient aircraft, and boost the growth of easyJet holidays, its package holiday division. 

Regarding operations on the Canary Islands, sector analysts anticipate the consolidation of existing frequencies aimed at British and Central European outbound tourism, pending the adjustment of the shareholding structure to ensure European regulatory compliance on community airline ownership, with the process expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2027.