Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou has dropped his demand for a shareholder meeting geared to expel an easyJet board member after the airline agreed to his demand to pay a large dividend, according to reports.

Sir Stelios withdrew his request for an extraordinary general meeting to oust easyjet non executive director Rigas Doganis following a £72m payout from the budget airline on Friday.

In response, an easyJet spokesperson said: “The board of easyJet welcomes this withdrawal as it viewed an emergency general meeting as an unnecessary and costly distraction. EasyJet looks forward to engaging constructively with easyGroup as it does with other shareholders.”

Sir Stelios, who owns a 38 per cent stake in the easyJet, had called for the departure of Rigas following a disagreement over easyJet’s move to invest its profits in expanding fleet.

Rigas, who has been at easyJet for six years, supported the deal in January to order the new aircraft from Airbus, but Sir Stelios strongly opposed.

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