This summer will be an unpleasant one for air travellers in Europe. Pilots at both Air France and British Airways have voted for strikes. As weary passengers search for somebody new to blame, they are unlikely to consider a chubby 28-year-old Greek with a wealthy father. Nonetheless, Stelios Haji-Ioannou is a big part of this story. Mr Haji-Ioannou is the founder of EasyJet, a British-based carrier launched last November, which has only four aircraft to its name. The firm started life, with a £5m ($7.7m) loan from Mr Haji-Ioannou's father, by offering a service from Glasgow and Edinburgh to Luton airport, just north of London. Tickets cost roughly a third of the price of British Airways' service to Heathrow. They are promoted by means of a cheeky advertis-ing campaign that focuses on a single tele-phone number. All customers need to do is to ring the number and use the credit card to book their flights, thereby avoiding travel agents.
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