A second private equity firm has joined the bidding race for EasyJet, proposing a higher offer than Castlelake and offering assurances that the airline won’t be broken up, at least for now. The LCC told the London Stock Exchange on July 10 that Apollo had proposed a higher £7.15 per share offer and that the new bidder “believes in EasyJet’s existing strategy of evolving and strengthening the low-cost carrier model.”
Apollo’s offer values EasyJet at £5.7 billion ($7.6 billion). However, the scale of EasyJet’s assets—its owned fleet, huge Airbus A320neo-family order book, slots at prime European airports, holiday business and expanding maintenance capacity—means there is plenty of extra value that a buyer could potentially extract from the airline.
Analysts had questioned whether a breakup of the airline was in the sights of Castlelake—speculation that won’t recede given Apollo Global Management’s status as another private equity player.
Both firms also have interests in aircraft leasing, and the EasyJet fleet is potentially a ready-made portfolio.
Several analysts doubt whether either private equity firm would pursue a breakup, but it is worth considering how the European maintenance market might be affected in the event of a fire sale.
EasyJet spent roughly $600 million on maintenance in its 2025 fiscal year, up 16% year over year. The bulk of that work went to European facilities, including to external providers like AJW, Lufthansa Technik and Safran.
The LCC is also pressing ahead with plans to in-source more heavy maintenance by acquiring Adria Technika in Slovenia and adding two bays to the four it has at the Maltese heavy maintenance facility it acquired in 2024 from SR Technics.
Those additions plus the Adria acquisition would enable EasyJet to in-source half of its base maintenance work, from about 25% today.
They might also provide a tempting acquisition target for an MRO seeking to expand its European presence—or for another large LCC to beef up its own internal capabilities.
Such prognostication remains highly speculative, of course, given the preliminary nature of the Apollo offer and EasyJet’s assurances about its future. Yet a change in ownership could also mean a change in maintenance strategy, if not the end of the airline as a whole.
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