Who Owns easyJet?

easyJet is being taken over. It has been a listed company with no controlling shareholder, its largest holder the founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and his family at around 15%. In August 2026 the board agreed a £5.7bn takeover by Apollo Global Management, which the family has undertaken to support. And the brand itself has never belonged to the airline: the “easy” name is licensed from Stelios’s private company. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns the Easyjet brand?

Here the answer genuinely splits in two.

The airline is EASYJET PLC (03959649), incorporated 24 March 2000 and registered at Hangar 89, London Luton Airport. As a listed company it is exempt from PSC reporting — from 24 March 2018 the company is exempt from the requirement to obtain information of its PSC because it has voting shares admitted to trading on a UK regulated market — so Companies House names no owner.

The brand belongs to easyGroup, Sir Stelios’s private company, which licenses the “easy” name and the orange livery to the airline. When easyJet floated in 2000, Stelios kept the brand out of the company. Buying easyJet has never meant buying easyJet’s name.

Parent company and ultimate owner

easyJet plc is the ultimate parent of the airline group, with easyJet Airline Company Limited (03034606, incorporated 17 March 1995) beneath it as the original operating company, along with easyJet Holidays and the European subsidiaries.

Above the plc there has been no owner — until now. In August 2026 easyJet’s board recommended an offer from Apollo Global Management at £7.15 a share, valuing the airline at a reported £5.7bn. Stelios and his family, holding around 15.31%, gave irrevocable undertakings to accept and are reported to be retaining a stake in the private company afterwards.

That deal has not completed. Companies House still records the listed-company exemption, and until the takeover closes and is filed, easyJet remains a public company with no controlling shareholder.

Brand owner vs operating company

The licensing arrangement is the most instructive thing about easyJet’s ownership, and it has been a source of open conflict.

easyGroup owns “easy” and licenses it to easyJet under an agreement setting conditions on how it is used. Stelios has repeatedly used his position as brand licensor and largest shareholder to press the board — over aircraft orders, dividends and strategy — with more leverage than a 15% holding alone would give.

easyGroup also licenses the name to a long list of unrelated ventures: easyHotel, easyGym, easyStorage, easyCar and others. Those businesses are not owned by easyJet and mostly not owned by easyGroup either — they are separate companies paying to use the brand. An orange logo is not evidence of common ownership.

When the ownership changed

easyJet was founded in 1995 by Stelios Haji-Ioannou, then in his twenties, funded by his shipowner father. The operating company dates from that year.

It floated on the London Stock Exchange in November 2000, and the family’s stake has fallen over the decades from majority control to around 15% — through sales and through dilution, notably the 2020 rights issue raised during the pandemic, which Stelios publicly opposed.

The Apollo agreement of August 2026 would be the first change of control in the company’s history, taking it private after twenty-six years on the market. A rival bidder withdrew before the recommendation.

Related brands in the same group

easyJet owns easyJet Holidays and its airline subsidiaries, including easyJet UK Limited and the Austrian and Swiss operating companies established around Brexit so the group could keep flying intra-European routes.

It does not own easyHotel, easyGym, easyCar, easyMoney or the rest of the “easy” family. Nor is it connected to Ryanair, Wizz Air or Jet2, all separately owned — Jet2 and Wizz Air are listed in their own right, and Ryanair is a separate Irish listed company.

Sources and verification

The company numbers, incorporation dates, the PSC chain from the operating company to the plc and the exemption wording are from the Companies House register.

The Apollo offer, the £7.15 price, the £5.7bn valuation and the family’s 15.31% and irrevocable undertakings come from the offer announcement and market reporting, not from any filing here — and the deal is agreed rather than completed. If it closes, the exemption will be replaced by a PSC entry naming the acquirer, and that is where to look for confirmation. Companies House does not verify most filed information.