The aviation industry does not typically do jokes. Make a sarcastic crack at security about your bags being packed by a stranger and your words will always be taken seriously.
Yet there was widespread amusement in the industry at the pronouncements of Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, one of Britain's best-known airline figures, as he made the latest outlandish move in his long-running dispute with the board of easyJet, the budget carrier he founded.
Last Monday it emerged that Haji-Ioannou – who remains a 38% shareholder – had penned his latest piece of correspondence to easyJet chairman Sir Michael Rake, in which he threatened to take on his most successful creation by launching a rival airline, as well as accusing the easyJet management of running a smear campaign against him (a charge which it denies).
The putative airline, this time branded in red rather than orange, quickly had a website promising: "Fastjet.com by Stelios. Coming soon!", while a similar-looking site trailing another venture also emerged at the cheekily entitled www.e-jet.com, an address owned by Haji-Ioannou's holding company, easyGroup.
Even by the standards of the turbulent relationship between airline and founder this was an incendiary move, particularly as it came days after it emerged that Haji-Ioannou and family will pocket £72m from their stake in the airline after the company finally succumbed to pressure and paid a special dividend.
It also followed a supposed peace treaty negotiated last October, when easyJet increased the annual royalty to easyGroup to as much as £65m over 10 years, and during which Haji-Ioannou agreed "not to use his own name or a derivation of it to brand any other airline which flies to or from any country in Europe for a period of five years". He now says that the non-compete agreement had been invalidated.
But is Fastjet for real? Andrew Lobbenberg, airline analyst at easyJet's broker Royal Bank of Scotland, said: "I don't think so, no. His efforts [in his battle with the easyJet board] have been directly focused on optimising cash payments to shareholders and minimising capital expenditure. He has come up with a series of moves that have been disruptive for the board. "He went down the road of threatening an extraordinary general meeting to get rid of directors. After two attempts, that strategy appears to have run its course. This looks to be the next move to try to disrupt the board. It's fairly colourful, if a little extreme, but we do not think it will become a real airline."
Other analysts were also sceptical about how quickly Fastjet could get off the ground. Gert Zonneveld, of Panmure Gordon, said: "If Stelios is genuinely looking to set up an airline that is a mirror to easyJet, you have to ask why he is doing it. EasyJet and Ryanair have been around for 15 years and have spent that time wisely, developing the best routes and slots. It would take at least 10 years to get the slots. Just because Stelios says he wants to set up an airline wouldn't overly concern me if I was an easyJet shareholder."
Those investors have had an interesting ride since Haji-Ioannou decided to turn into an activist investor who battles the board on a number of major areas including the purchase of new aircraft as well as dividends – reserving particular ire for former chief executive Andy Harrison.
There has been success, although having handed Haji-Ioannou and other shareholders what looked like a victory with the announcement of the special dividend, easyJet's current chief executive, Carolyn McCall, insisted that the £190m payout was not due to pressure from just one investor.
"Market sentiment has definitely shifted. There is no question that since things got harder in the eurozone shareholders have definitely shifted their emphasis to capital returns," said McCall, former chief executive of Guardian Media Group, publisher of the Observer and Guardian.
Despite Haji-Ioannou's vocal opposition, and his letter to Rake a few days later, the entrepreneur has not uttered a further word about his plans since last Monday evening, when he was spotted dining at Boisdale, an upmarket restaurant in London's Belgravia. Meanwhile, friends as well as many in the industry profess ignorance of his next move.
The Civil Aviation Authority says it has not received an application for an airline operating certificate, which would require Fastjet to pass tests relating to areas such as the fitness of its key personnel and its financing. Should the new company be certified outside the UK, the process need not necessarily be lengthy, however. It is thought that when easyJet received its licence, the procedure took about five months to complete.
Industry queries to aircraft lessors have drawn a similar blank, while the UK's Intellectual Property Office has no record of an trademark application.
However, industry watchers speculate that something other than creating a budget airline from scratch is the most likely Fastjet result, with some suggesting that the new business could run services using other airlines' aircraft on a similar model to tour operators, be a transatlantic service, or even another attempt at the tricky budget business jet market. Others flagged up potential acquisitions.
In a note to clients on Friday, Peter Hyde of Liberum Capital identified five barriers to entry in the airline industry: access to capital, access to cheap aircraft, the business model, the brand name and access to networks.
"Start-ups need to find some routes where they can generate positive cashflow relatively quickly," Hyde said. "If Fastjet offers services within the intra-EU market, we believe it will be relatively difficult for it to find routes where the rate of cash generation is quick."
One alternative, analysts say, could be for Haji-Ioannou to acquire a company or some assets from an existing carrier. Liberum reckons that Lufthansa, which is currently undertaking a strategic review of bmi, might be a possible seller.
Assuming Haji-Ioannou could pull that off, it would silence the doubters for a while – simultaneously making Stelios both fast and easy.
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