stelios haji ioannou yacht

Cruise And Ferry

Ship that launched Sir Stelios’ EasyCruise dream gets cut up for scrap in Dubai

Former EasyCruiseOne is one of two failed cruise to yacht conversions that are being recycled in the Middle East business hub

Rain could not dampen the enthusiasm of Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou back in 2005 when the Greek serial entrepreneur showed off the first what was intended to be the first of many cruise ships for his EasyCruise venture that applied the principles of his EasyJet low cost airline to bring ultra-cheap cruising to the masses.

Today that cruise ship, the 4,100-gt EasyCruiseOne (built 1990, renamed Cruise One) is being cut down for scrap on the dry berth it has been sitting on for over decade waiting for its conversion into a luxury mega-yacht.

Another long abandoned partly converted mega-yacht sitting next to the Cruise One, the former 3,400-gt former Greek cruise ship Maria Kosmas (1981) has already been dismantled, Dubai shipyard sources told TradeWinds.

Sir Stelios’ big cruise ambitions did not last long.

The EasyCruiseOne, which was built for high-end operator Renaissance Cruises, had spent several years in Asian waters as a run-down casino ship before Sir Stelios became its owner.

Stripped of its faded luxury trappings for 140 passengers, the ship was fitted with bare-bones accommodation for double that number. Always intended as a pathfinder vessel, it was replaced by a larger ship within three years, although the EasyCruise venture did not last much longer.

The EasyCruiseOne was sold in 2008 to a shipowning vehicle linked to Platinum Yacht Management, a company best known for looking after the yachts belonging to Dubai’s ruling family.

The plan was to strip out the EasyCruise orange decor and fill the ship with all the luxury trappings required by royalty. But, with the world in a financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, the project stalled before it began.

According to cruise brokers, the untouched ship was put back on the sales market, but buyers baulked at the high asking price, especially since they would need to spend huge amounts of cash to rebuild the interior of the ship to an acceptable standard for the cruising public. EasyCruise passengers had made do with matrasses on the floor of their miniscule cabins.

And so the Cruise One sat baking in the hot sun as the years passed.

Keeping the ship company on the dry berth at Dubai Maritime City’s common user shipyard facility was the former Vergina Cruises ship Maria Kosmas.

A former Australian navy hydrographic survey vessel, it was converted into a cruise vessel by the Greek cruise operator in 1993. The Maria Kosmas was not a successful ship for Vergina. It had been laid up near Piraeus for several years by the time was it purchased by a Middle Eastern buyer in 2002.

Soon after it was moved to Dubai for conversion into the yacht Cosmos. Extensive steel work was done, and all that was left was for the interior to be installed.

But then the project was called off and the partially rebuilt ship was shunted off into lay-up.

Rumours circulated by yachting industry sources at the time the project stalled suggested that the owner’s eye had turned to another mega-yacht that he decided to buy instead.

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Simple Flying

Why did stelios haji-ioannou start easyjet.

Entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou was making a pretty penny in the shipping industry in his early post-graduate days. But at age just 28, he switched his career path from ships to aviation, launching the low-cost behemoth we now know as easyJet. We take a look at what led him down this path.

What Stelios was doing before lift became ‘easy’

Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s family came from humble beginnings. His father, in particular, was born to a poor farming family working the hills high up in the Troodos Mountains. Loucas Haji-Ioannou was one of 12 siblings but had a flair for business that propelled him out of poverty. Before he was 40, he had built a fleet of cargo ships, and went on to become a dominant force in the global shipping industry.

With such big shoes to fill, it’s not surprising that Stelios was drawn to the world of entrepreneurship. After graduating high school in Athens, he went to London to study Economics at the LSE, and then obtained an MSc in Shipping, Trade and Finance from Cass Business School.

As a self-proclaimed ‘serial entrepreneur,’ Stelios began life working for his father’s successful shipping company. At just 25 years old, his father gifted him £30 million to set up his own shipping business, Stelmar Shipping. His work often took him around the world, which, at the time, was an expensive business. Back then, low-cost carriers weren’t a ‘thing,’ certainly not in Europe.

In 1995, when Stelios was just 28, he was approached to invest in a franchise for a Greek arm of Virgin Atlantic. Recognizing a gap in the market, he declined the investment but instead went off to research setting up his own airline. He became fascinated with the operating model of United States-based Southwest Airlines and believed he could replicate the same thing in Europe. With another loan from his father, of £5 million this time, easyJet was born.

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The birth of a low-cost carrier

easyJet was ready to shake up the market. Stelios had a vision of cutting out meals onboard, removing the travel agent from the equation and making flights from Luton to Scotland ‘as affordable as a pair of jeans’. At the time, these were pretty revolutionary concepts.

From what was essentially a sizeable shed at London’s Luton Airport, Stelios began building his empire. Starting with a couple of rented planes from GB Airways, easyJet plastered its phone number on the side of the jets and started flying from Luton to Glasgow and Edinburgh. At the time, the only way to book a ticket on easyJet was via telephone.

It wasn’t until 1996 that easyJet took its first aircraft. Wholly owned, the plane was used to establish a new service to Amsterdam, with the same budget-friendly foundation that has become the hallmark of easyJet to this day. Interestingly, until late into 1997, all of the airline’s aircraft were operated under a wet lease by GB Airways, as easyJet did not have its own AOC .

In the coming years, easyJet would prove to be a force for change in the UK market. Stelios remained a colorful character throughout, sabotaging British Airways’ attempt at a low-cost competitor by turning up to Go’s inaugural flight with six colleagues, all dressed in orange boiler suits.

In the coming years, easyJet would buy out BA’s Go and its original wet least partner, GB Airways. It moved into Gatwick and spread across Europe like a huge orange wave. While recent times have not been kind to the airline, the future is beginning to look up. And while Stelios, now a minority shareholder, has sometimes been unhappy with the direction the airline is taking, his legacy is set to live on.

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ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR: STELIOS HAJI-IOANNOU

Entrepreneur of the Year: Stelios Haji-Ioannou

By Jennifer Conlin

• Jan. 22, 2006

STELIOS HAJI-IOANNOU is the son of a Greek shipping tycoon and the founder of easyJet P.L.C., a budget airline he started in 1995 at the age of 28. Last year, easyJet flew 30 million passengers, making it one of the largest short-haul airlines in Europe. Since then, Mr. Haji-Ioannou has started 14 other ventures through his private investment venture, easyGroup, and licenses the "easy" brand name to ventures like easyHotel and easyInternet Cafe. His most recent project, easyCruise, was started last summer on the French and Italian Rivieras and is now offering cruises in the Caribbean, operating out of Barbados and with stops in St. Vincent, the Grenadines, Grenada, St. Lucia and Martinique. The average age of easyCruise customers in its first season was 32. This conversation took place on Jan. 10 in London.

When you think of your target easyCruise customer, what type of person are you picturing?

Someone young. My research showed their biggest objection to cruising was that it was a lot of old people. So I thought, "Give them their own ship." The younger people are not willing to spend $5,000 on a cruise. And they do not want to be held captive on the ship, so we have a two-night minimum stay. By not making the ship a floating resort, we have been able to keep the price low. Instead, it is a floating hotel that we keep in port at night so people can eat onboard if they wish or go ashore. And everything is a la carte so they can choose what services they want.

In the same way you took on British Airways when you started easyJet, you seem more than happy to go up against Carnival Cruise Lines. Do you like controversy?

I said that Carnival's ships have tacky ballrooms and are full of old folks, which made Micky Arison pretty angry. [Mr. Arison is chief executive of Carnival Cruise Lines.] I am a great believer that to make a difference in people's lives you are probably going to have to ruffle some feathers. One of our brand models is to take on the big boys.

Someone once said that you look at traditional industries and then blow them to pieces by figuring out a way to do them cheaper and more efficiently? Do you think that is a fair assessment of your business philosophy?

I can't promise to blow all of them apart. But I think it is a compliment when the big boys are taking notice. It is also a convenient way of differentiating our product from the more traditional products.

How do your best ideas originate?

It is a lot of trial and error, observing, traveling and using my personal experience from other industries. With the cruise line, I came up with the idea of staying in port at night from my personal experience and memories of private yachting. I grew up being on boats because my father had a yacht. What do you do with a yacht? You sail during the day and go into port at night, which is not the itinerary of traditional cruises. Cruising in the middle of the night is not pleasant. You look out at a dark sea. Sailing during daylight and arriving in the afternoon is better. You actually see views.

You emphasize low cost. When do you think luxury should not be sacrificed?

Everyone is different, but for me I would feel embarrassed within Europe on short-haul flights to be in business class. But when I fly to Miami from London I want business class because I want to sleep. If you are going to spend one night in a city and have business meetings, then a budget easyHotel is fine, but I don't think you should spend your honeymoon in an easyHotel. What a scary thought!

Would you bring the easyHotels to America?

Yes. I am thinking of franchising it in New York, where we are in negotiations, and perhaps Miami.

You are often mentioned in the same breath as Richard Branson, who is now also going into the cruise market. What do you think you have in common, and how do you think you are different?

There is no doubt in my mind that I have been inspired by him. I wanted to start an airline because I thought that Branson was having fun running an airline. But the business model came from Southwest -- so I think that Herb Kelleher is more of a hero there. Taking the brand bigger is something I learned from Branson. But Virgin is more of a luxury brand and easyGroup is more of the money-for-value brand. He is saying that his cruise product is for people in their forties who are too old to rock 'n' roll and too young to tango. Hopefully, they are too young for Carnival and too old for easyCruise.

You once said you wanted to paint the whole world orange, your company's signature color. Do you ever grow weary of that bold orange color?

I know where you are coming from about the color. Let me give you a hint. Maybe the next ship will have less orange. I am not saying there is anything wrong with orange, but we can debate the quantity of orange. Maybe not every square foot has to be orange. But we want to be faithful to the brand, and the color is part of that. It tells people we are about value for money and fun. ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR: STELIOS HAJI-IOANNOU

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Naming and commissioning of TS Sir Stelios

On 13th September, hundreds gathered at St Katherine Dock to witness the naming and commissioning of our new yacht 'TS Sir Stelios', kindly provided by the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation.   Businessman and philanthropist Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, best known for the easyJet low-cost airline as well as his 'easy' family of brands, was joined by cadets at the ceremony to name the new green and blue ship. He said, "I am honoured and delighted that my philanthropic foundation has been given the opportunity to help out young people who go to sea.  I wish the Training Ship Sir Stelios and all her future crews a fair wind and God speed for bright and successful times to come."   The Rustler 42 yacht - so named because it is 42 feet long - will enable more cadets to take part in transformational voyages at sea and enjoy the thrill and challenges of sailing first hand. Through a range of bursaries Sea Cadets endeavours to offer all it's cadets, regardless of their background, to embark on this trip of a lifetime.   Martin Coles, CEO said, "We are not simply celebrating a beautiful new yacht or the opportunity for cadets to go sailing. We are celebrating the addition of this new yacht as a platform or vehicle through which we are able to offer young people the Sea Cadet Experience.   "It is this experience that delivers the real purpose of our charity, helping young people at the most challenging times in their lives as they travel that tortuous journey from child to adult in an often overwhelming world. “Adventure that launches young people for life today."   Captain Sea Cadets Captain Phil Russell also attended the ceremony, and said, "The difference you see in these young people after they've been away at sea is really remarkable. Being out of their comfort zone and realising how capable they are is such a great experience, and you see the confidence shining out of them when they return."   We would like to thank the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, and of course Sir Stelios himself,  for believing in Sea Cadets and helping us to continue to deliver the Sea Cadets experience to young people all over the country.

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Profile: Stelios Haji-Ioannou: Travel's agent orange

He's not yet 30, he owns a shipping line and he faces a manslaughter charge. david bowen meets a very unusual airline proprietor, article bookmarked.

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Stelios Haji-Ioannou knows how to enjoy himself. He likes to spend his weekends on his 110ft yacht, scuba-diving around the Greek islands. Weekdays he spends in Luton Airport.

The stocky, cheerful Haji-Ioannou is the latest in a long line of entrepreneurs who have decided to shake up air travel. He started his own airline, easyJet, last November and is busy raising its profile in the most aggressive way he can. His headquarters at Luton are painted orange; so are his aircraft, the only ones in the world with huge telephone numbers on their fuselages. His (orange) advertising is less than subtle, too: it is designed to irritate travel agents - whom he does not use - and to tell you loudly that easyJet will sell you a flight ticket for just pounds 29.

But Haji-Ioannou is unusual in other ways. He is probably the only airline proprietor who also owns a shipping line. He is probably the only airline proprietor who has yet to reach his fourth decade - he is 29. And he is certainly the only airline proprietor who has a possible 12-year sentence for manslaughter hanging over him.

Which leads us back to that yacht. EasyJet has so far spent pounds 25m, all of which has come from Haji-Ioannou's family. His father, Loucas, came from a poor family in the Troodos mountains of Cyprus. He bought his first ship in 1959 and, with a stroke of bold counter-cyclical buying in the 1980s, built up the biggest tanker fleet in the world.

As a result Stelios, his brother Polys and his sister Clelia were born with solid platinum spoons in their mouths. This explains the yacht, but does not explain why he works 16 hours a day rather than wallowing full time in the good life. "I've always been conscientious and hardworking," he says. "I've never wasted time." There is also, he says, an element of proving himself to dad.

The next question is: why has he moved into airlines, an industry that has destroyed more bold ambitions than any other?

Why, in particular, has he decided to "do a Laker" - a doom-laden expression if there ever was one - by competing entirely on price?

To answer that, we need to look at Haji-Ioannou's career so far. He was brought up in Athens and, when he was a teenager, decided he wanted to set off on a well-trodden path for wealthy Greeks - to London, and specifically to the London School of Economics. After getting an economics degree, he took a masters in shipping, trade and finance at City University Business School. In the process he was so indoctrinated in business school practices that he grew impatient with the Greek way. "I like organised things," he says. "I don't like the corruption and slowness of Greece."

Leaving London in 1988, he joined his father's business. "I imagined I would spend all my life in shipping," he says. But he had been seriously infected with business-schoolitis and soon found himself drawing up a plan for his own company. It would be for up-market tankers, which would carry more valuable products and thus charge higher rates. Where most business school graduates would leave their model on the computer, he was in a position to translate it into solid steel. Dad came up with $50m and, in 1992, Haji-Ioannou set up Stelmar. The year before this, however, disaster struck. A giant Troodos Maritime tanker, the Haven, blew up in Genoa harbour killing five crewmen and creating one of the Mediterranean's biggest environmental disasters. Stelios, still only 23, found himself accused with his father and another executive of manslaughter.

The Italian legal process is still grinding through. "Early on, it was like a sword of Damocles," he says. Now he is more relaxed; he expects the civil action to be settled in about six months and the criminal case to be dropped at the same time.

Haji-Ioannou claims the accident has made him obsessive about safety. "It taught me that you should always prepare for the worst."

He spent a couple of years building up Stelmar before the market flattened and then decided it was time to do something a little more exciting. Friends in Athens who ran a Virgin franchise asked him to invest in their operation. He was unimpressed but sufficiently intrigued to start producing business models for a possible new airline.

He travelled to the United States where he was particularly taken by the relentlessly profitable South West Airlines in Dallas. It used a combination of rock-bottom costs and rock-bottom fares to attract people who otherwise would not be able to fly. Haji-Ioannou reckoned the same approach could work in Europe because, as he explains in business-speak, "the elasticity of demand for air travel is greater than one". In other words, cut the price and extra passengers will more than make up the revenue.

He returned to his spreadsheet and developed the business concept that became easyJet. Once again his father agreed to help him, with pounds 8m to capitalise the company. EasyJet started flying between Luton and Scotland last November and has already sold 250,000 seats. It is now expanding its routes - to Amsterdam, Nice and Barcelona. "My father doesn't know about airlines but he's proud of me," Haji-Ioannou says.

The phone number on the fuselage is a clue to his central tenet: cut out the travel agent. "The traditional ticketing system is great if you need flexibility but it adds a layer of cost," he says. Unless you intend to change planes, you do not need the flexibility a traditional IATA ticket brings. Get rid of the ticket and you have escaped the airline reservation systems and, with them, the travel agents plugged into them. "The whole concept of the travel agent is absurd," he says. "They appear to be agents of the traveller but are actually agents of the airlines." EasyJet, he says, is the only airline that has never paid a penny to travel agents.

Without agents, he has to rely on direct sales - which explains the phone numbers and the pounds 2m he has spent on advertising. Passengers ring up, pay by credit card, and are sent a receipt with a confirmation number. When they turn up at the airport they give the number, show identification, and off they go.

His obsession with abolishing paper goes beyond tickets. Every document that comes into his headquarters is scanned into the computer system, then binned. His entire administrative staff of 12 people fits in one room - he in one corner, his finance department of two in another.

The other big cost saving is to use Luton, which has been losing scheduled airlines and is offering rock-bottom landing fees. "The differential with Heathrow is pounds 10 per passenger," Haji-Ioannou says.

The pricing system is real business school stuff. If you book early for a Scottish flight, you pay pounds 29 one way. The later you book, the more you pay - up to pounds 59. EasyJet ratchets up the more popular flights fast, so to get a pounds 29 ticket on a busy Friday flight, you would have to book weeks ahead. On a mid-week flight, you might still get it the day before. Haji-Ioannou says that half the tickets sold so far have gone for pounds 29 - though passengers might be upset to find that there is also a pounds 5 airport tax.

The choice of routes is important. "We aim for those with high prices, reasonable volume and little competition," he says. UK domestic routes fit the bill but why the highly competitive London-Amsterdam? "It's the biggest route from London after Paris," he says. "And our price - pounds 35 - is particularly cheap for people flying from Holland." Nevertheless, some travel industry experts are worried that easyJet may be expanding too fast into routes in which it does not have a sufficiently clear price advantage.

Haji-Ioannou has just paid pounds 17m for a relatively youthful Boeing 737, and is keen to emphasise the safety of his three-strong fleet. "If you think safety is expensive, try an accident," he says with some feeling.

He is not, he says, concerned that he will crash land as did Freddie Laker ("a bit of a legend for me"). His computer tells him his model works better on short-haul than long-haul flights, and he does not believe he will be troubled by dirty tricks from other airlines. "BA has learned its lesson," he says.

When easyJet is established, history suggests he will look for something else to do. "When we get to eight or 10 aircraft, it could be the right time to float," he says. Judging from his other interest, it seems likely he will head off computerwards.

This weekend he is flying to Athens and hopes to spend time on his yacht. He will travel with British Airways. Would it not be convenient if easyJet flew to Athens? "It doesn't fit into our model," he says. Business school 1; Greece 0.

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Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou celebrates 30 ‘easy’ years

A superb video retraces the history of the group, which was created by the Monegasque resident when he was just 27 years old.

In 1994, the young man of Cypriot origin could not have imagined that, three decades later, he would have revolutionised the air transport sector and, more generally, low-cost tourism. And yet… After travelling to the US to visit a Boeing factory, flying on a low-cost airline and staying in a budget hotel for the first time, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou had an idea: to create a name that could apply to an airline as well as a hotel…

Using a paper napkin in a bar as his ‘drawing board’, the young entrepreneur came up with several names, several keywords, before hitting on: “easy.” And so easyJet was born in 1995, followed by easyGroup in 1998. And the brands kept coming: easyHotel, easyCar, easyBus, easyCleaning, easyLife, easyStorage… The concept worked so well that Sir Stelios set up his own Foundation, whose activities are regularly funded from the Group’s brand royalties. A foundation that encourages young entrepreneurs to pursue their ideas , as he himself had done.

His beginnings, his family, his Foundation.. Sir Stelios opens up in a major interview

“Give back to society”

In honour of the group’s exceptional journey, the easyHistory website has published a video retracing the major milestones along the way: from the first orange and white aircraft, to the first interviews, as well as the billionaire being knighted by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2006… Today, over a hundred brands bear the easy name and are part of the group.

“I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to create this recurring income stream from the easy family of brands which I use every year to give back to society,” said Sir Stelios Haji-Iannou. Looking to the future, he added: “Here is to the next 30 years of the easy family and to a lot more good work done by my foundation.”

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, making it hard to use “easy”

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Mocka Jumbies and Rum...

• 25-27 FEBRUARY 2018
• CALL FOR ENTRIES – REGISTER BY 30 JANUARY
• OPEN TO SAILING YACHTS 50-FT AND OVER
• ALL COSTS COVERED BY HOST PARTNERS

(ST KITTS 29 JANUARY 2018) Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Commodore of the Gustavia Yacht Club of St Barths and Charles P. “Buddy” Darby, Founder & CEO of Christophe Harbour , the premier superyacht marina and residential resort community on the southeast peninsula of St Kitts, are delighted announce the first event of the 2018 season.

Taking place 25-27 February 2018, the Gustavia Yacht Club – Christophe Harbour Cup Race is a three-day pursuit race that will cover the 90 nautical miles on a return circuit between St Kitts and St Barths.

Open to sailing yachts 50-ft and over, interested yacht owners are invited to register by 30th of January 2018. The costs of this informal and friendly event are entirely covered by the two host partners. No entry fees are required.

Especially for this event, Gustavia Yacht Club has commissioned a sterling silver cup from British master craftsmen which the winner will hold for one year until it is passed on to the champions of the 2019 Cup. For posterity, race winners will be awarded a keepsake engraved winners’ cup.

The Gustavia Yacht Club – Christophe Harbour Cup has been devised to strengthen community ties between St Barths and St Kitts. The pure Corinthian spirit of the three-day gathering will bring entertainment and fun to this part of the Caribbean that is proudly and actively recovering from the impact of 2017 hurricanes.

Buddy Darby, CEO Christophe Harbour and himself a highly regarded yachtsman, says:

“We have long been discussing with Gustavia Yacht Club the clear opportunity for hosting a joint race. St Barths and Christophe Harbour are aligned in so many ways. This is an exciting first regatta with more to follow on Christophe Harbour’s 2018 calendar, and what a great way to start the year and draw focus to the thriving Eastern Caribbean.”

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou added:

“With the Gustavia Yacht Club – Christophe Harbour Cup Race, I am looking to create a new type of event in the Eastern Caribbean to strengthen ties between the islands at a difficult time as they recover from last season’s storms.”

This is the fifth consecutive year of 20% year on year growth for the dual nation’s yachting industry. St Kitts’ Christophe Harbour is leading that trend with a robust start to the season.

Since December the 24-berth superyacht marina, also the fastest fuelling destination in the Eastern Caribbean, has welcomed a significant number of some of the superyacht industry’s major players including Lürssen’s 90-m M/Y Phoenix 2 and the 92-m Blohm & Voss M/Y Mayan Queen.

To register for the Gustavia Yacht Club – Christophe Harbour Cup Race by 30 January contact:

Celia Meralikan [email protected] Tel + 590 690 85 58 37

Becky Rutland [email protected] Tel +1 869 465 9755 Christophe Harbour Marina Office VHF 71

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Sir Stellios Haji-Ioannou, Commodore of Gustavia Yacht Club

We were delighted to have Sir Stellios Haji-Ioannou, Commodore of Gustavia Yacht Club, with us at Foynes Yacht Club last weekend. Gustavia Yacht Club is located on the Island of St Barts, in the French West Indies in the Caribbean. We were very happy to welcome him and his friends, who are holidaying in the area at the moment. We presented him with a club burgee, and received a lovely booklet detailing the history of Gustavia Yacht Club in return.

We would like to thank Sir Stellios Haji-Ioannou for visiting us at Foynes Yacht Club, and wish him and his friends the best on their travels to Monaco.

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Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou: Official Biography

Updated 12 August 2022 Stelios is best known for creating the easy family of brands beginning with easyJet in 1994 when he was just 27. Six years later he floated the airline on the www.londonstockexchange.com in order to fund the airline’s growth however he and his family remain the largest shareholders holding around 15% of the shares. The stock market currently values easyJet PLC at about £3.1 billion. When the COVID pandemic struck the airline was carrying about 100 million passengers per year and numbers were substantially reduced but are now recovering..

The easy family of brands

Charity work:.

Stelios started giving back to society when he turned 40 years old and has since formalised his charitable giving by creating the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation ( www.stelios.org ) , which now takes up about a third of his time. Its mission statement is to support a diverse range of charitable activities principally in the countries where he has lived and worked: UK, Greece, Cyprus and Monaco. The most notable program is “Food from the heart” that in normal times (pre-COVID) feeds 200,000 people with a snack each month in Greece and Cyprus since 2013. https://steliosfoundation.gr/faghto-apo-kardias . In addition since 2008 the Foundation’s bi-communal awards programme in Cyprus gives €500,000 annually to Greek and Turkish Cypriots, who work together for a lasting peace on the island https://steliosfoundation.com.cy/peace-cyprus-bicommunal-awards/ . Sadly, this program is paused because of COVID but the Foundation has given to many pandemic related causes that include thank you gifts in the form of shop vouchers to front line nurses and carers. Other good causes are supported with regular donations. Environmental charity wwf.org is a major beneficiary in partnership with HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco’s own foundation. ( fpa2.org ). In May 2017 Stelios signed the Giving Pledge ( https://givingpledge.org/Pledger.aspx?id=334 ) committing to endow his Foundation with half his estate in order to become the perpetual vehicle for his legacy. This initiative was started in 2010 by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet.

Family business background:

easyGroup , founded in 1998, is the private investment vehicle owned by Stelios that manages the ' easy ' brand and launches new businesses.

Stelmar Shipping

Stelmar Shipping was Stelios' first company which successfully floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 2001.

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Stelios ends war with easyJet’s boardroom ‘scoundrels’

The easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has called a truce to his longstanding dogfight with the airline’s “scoundrel” chiefs that culminated in a failed boardroom coup.

Haji-Ioannou, still the airline’s biggest shareholder with a 15 per cent stake, has conceded that his war of words with the chief executive Johan Lundgren was born out of a fear that easyJet would not survive the pandemic.

In his first comments since calling the easyJet board “scoundrels” over their decision to press ahead with a large order of Airbus aircraft during the pandemic, Haji-Ioannou heaped praise on Lundgren and the chairman Stephen Hester for dragging the airline back from the brink.

His remarks come as easyJet’s return to the FTSE 100 index will be confirmed this week after

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Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and easyJet Business Leader

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It is nearly 30 years since Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou founded easyJet in the mid-1990s and helped to transform air travel in Europe. In this episode of Business Leader, Sir Stelios discusses how he built the airline, how he used distinctive marketing to fight fierce competition, how fly-on-the-wall documentary Airline became one of the most popular shows on television, and why he has launched a new award for young entrepreneurs. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit offtolunch.substack.com

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Gustavia Yacht Club St Barts is now open!

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou Commodore Gustavia Yacht Club is delighted to announce that the gustavia clubhouse is now open. 

The clubhouse will be open to receive members every week , Monday to Saturday, 6pm to 10pm.

Also, please welcome our new bartender to the clubhouse Elodie Slitane.

She looks forward to meeting you.

Clubhouse will stay open till end of April23.

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Cruising the Moskva River: A short guide to boat trips in Russia’s capital

There’s hardly a better way to absorb Moscow’s atmosphere than on a ship sailing up and down the Moskva River. While complicated ticketing, loud music and chilling winds might dampen the anticipated fun, this checklist will help you to enjoy the scenic views and not fall into common tourist traps.

How to find the right boat?

There are plenty of boats and selecting the right one might be challenging. The size of the boat should be your main criteria.

Plenty of small boats cruise the Moskva River, and the most vivid one is this yellow Lay’s-branded boat. Everyone who has ever visited Moscow probably has seen it.

This option might leave a passenger disembarking partially deaf as the merciless Russian pop music blasts onboard. A free spirit, however, will find partying on such a vessel to be an unforgettable and authentic experience that’s almost a metaphor for life in modern Russia: too loud, and sometimes too welcoming. Tickets start at $13 (800 rubles) per person.

Bigger boats offer smoother sailing and tend to attract foreign visitors because of their distinct Soviet aura. Indeed, many of the older vessels must have seen better days. They are still afloat, however, and getting aboard is a unique ‘cultural’ experience. Sometimes the crew might offer lunch or dinner to passengers, but this option must be purchased with the ticket. Here is one such  option  offering dinner for $24 (1,490 rubles).

If you want to travel in style, consider Flotilla Radisson. These large, modern vessels are quite posh, with a cozy restaurant and an attentive crew at your service. Even though the selection of wines and food is modest, these vessels are still much better than other boats.

Surprisingly, the luxurious boats are priced rather modestly, and a single ticket goes for $17-$32 (1,100-2,000 rubles); also expect a reasonable restaurant bill on top.

How to buy tickets?

Women holding photos of ships promise huge discounts to “the young and beautiful,” and give personal invitations for river tours. They sound and look nice, but there’s a small catch: their ticket prices are usually more than those purchased online.

“We bought tickets from street hawkers for 900 rubles each, only to later discover that the other passengers bought their tickets twice as cheap!”  wrote  (in Russian) a disappointed Rostislav on a travel company website.

Nevertheless, buying from street hawkers has one considerable advantage: they personally escort you to the vessel so that you don’t waste time looking for the boat on your own.

Prices start at $13 (800 rubles) for one ride, and for an additional $6.5 (400 rubles) you can purchase an unlimited number of tours on the same boat on any given day.

Flotilla Radisson has official ticket offices at Gorky Park and Hotel Ukraine, but they’re often sold out.

Buying online is an option that might save some cash. Websites such as  this   offer considerable discounts for tickets sold online. On a busy Friday night an online purchase might be the only chance to get a ticket on a Flotilla Radisson boat.

This  website  (in Russian) offers multiple options for short river cruises in and around the city center, including offbeat options such as ‘disco cruises’ and ‘children cruises.’ This other  website  sells tickets online, but doesn’t have an English version. The interface is intuitive, however.

Buying tickets online has its bad points, however. The most common is confusing which pier you should go to and missing your river tour.

“I once bought tickets online to save with the discount that the website offered,” said Igor Shvarkin from Moscow. “The pier was initially marked as ‘Park Kultury,’ but when I arrived it wasn’t easy to find my boat because there were too many there. My guests had to walk a considerable distance before I finally found the vessel that accepted my tickets purchased online,” said the man.

There are two main boarding piers in the city center:  Hotel Ukraine  and  Park Kultury . Always take note of your particular berth when buying tickets online.

Where to sit onboard?

Even on a warm day, the headwind might be chilly for passengers on deck. Make sure you have warm clothes, or that the crew has blankets ready upon request.

The glass-encased hold makes the tour much more comfortable, but not at the expense of having an enjoyable experience.

Getting off the boat requires preparation as well. Ideally, you should be able to disembark on any pier along the way. In reality, passengers never know where the boat’s captain will make the next stop. Street hawkers often tell passengers in advance where they’ll be able to disembark. If you buy tickets online then you’ll have to research it yourself.

There’s a chance that the captain won’t make any stops at all and will take you back to where the tour began, which is the case with Flotilla Radisson. The safest option is to automatically expect that you’ll return to the pier where you started.

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River Cruise on Luxurious Radisson Boat

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Equipped with ice-breaking technology, these huge fancy yachts are the only river cruisers running all year around. The round trip journey takes two and a half hours and floats past all the big sights like the White House, Novodevichy monastery and the Kremlin. There’s a large open air observation deck up top, while the main body of the ship houses a restaurant with a dance floor for a romantic post dinner dance. For a particularly romantic experience take one of the evening boats and admire the bright lights of the city skyline at night.

The most relaxing and picturesque tour that Moscow can offer: a great way to see the city center and its main attractions. This is a perfect alternative to exploring the city by car, if you only have time to do sightseeing during weekday rush hours.

Your English-speaking guide is eager to share every bit of their knowledge about the surrounding landscape, the architecture and historical details.

We conduct Moscow river tour on Radisson Flotilla boats all year around!  It’s warm inside during winter months, while there’s air conditioning during hot summer days. You may also treat yourself to drinks, lunch or dinner on board (drinks and food are not included in tour price).

The cost of an excursion with a personal guide for 1 person

Quay at Radisson Collection Hotel

Government Headquarters ("the White House")

Kievsky Railway Central

Novodevichy Convent

Luzhniki Stadium

Academy of Sciences

Monument to Peter I

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

Moscow Kremlin

St.Basil's Cathedral

Novospassky Monastery

U-turn and back to Quay at Radisson Royal Hotel

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UK extends its lead as the largest financial centre in Europe but rivals in Asia are catching up fast

By Lucy White For The Daily Mail

Updated: 16:51 EST, 9 June 2021

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Britain is the largest financial centre in Europe and has an even bigger lead over its rivals than previous rankings have suggested, according to new research.

The financial sector is roughly three times the size of its nearest European rivals, France and Germany, data from think tank New Financial showed, and is second only to the US globally.

The UK has a score of 35 out of 100 when judged on 42 metrics of domestic and international activity, focusing on the value of business it commands.

Trading centre:  Britain's financial sector is roughly three times the size of its nearest European rivals, France and Germany, the latest data from think tank New Financial showed

The US scores 84, while France and Germany score 13 and 12 respectively. But China, Japan and Hong Kong are all creeping up on the UK, with scores of 29, 19 and 14 respectively. 

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Domestic activity has stagnated since the Brexit vote in 2016, and while international activity has grown faster in the UK than the EU, Hong Kong and Singapore have been stealing market share.

New Financial analyst Panagiotis Asimakopoulos said Brexit will have dented the UK lead in foreign equity trading, foreign bank assets, trading of complex financial assets known as derivatives and clearing, where money is transferred from buyer to seller.

But he said: ‘Even if 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the UK’s international activity were to relocate – a very big ‘if’ – the UK would still be more than double their size. 

However, four of the top 10 financial centres are countries in Asia that have been catching up rapidly.’

It comes as Chancellor Rishi Sunak is trying to exclude the City of London’s financial services companies from a global tax overhaul targeting the world’s most profitable businesses.

He fears British banks will join the likes of Google and Amazon in having to redistribute profits. The EU has pushed back – it expects all companies to pay their fair share.

Share or comment on this article: UK extends its lead as the largest financial centre in Europe

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