easyJet founder claims ticket sales are only core activity under brand licence agreement

easyJet founder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, told a London court ticket sales are the only core activity under its brand licence agreement and the carrier is close to sullying the "easy" brand by trying to introduce more ancillary revenue streams (Bloomberg, 16-Jun-2010). Sir Stelios stated easyJet is "gouging the customer with useless services" as a "short-term response" to boosting revenue. He added growth of the carrier over the past 10 years has damaged its profitability, leading it to "squeeze whatever revenue it can from its customers regardless of the potential adverse impact this can have on the way customers relate to the 'easy' and easyJet brands". According to Sir Stelios, the carrier's profit margin in FY2009 was 1.6%, compared with a margin of 11.2% in its first year of operations.