Some might detect hubris in the expansionist plans of Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who wants to buy 75 new planes to cope with the runaway success of his low-cost airline easyJet. His plans are reminiscent of Harry Goodman’s Air Europe, which placed the biggest aircraft order in commercial aviation history a decade ago and then promptly went bust.But then Ray Webster, who runs the show for Stelios, is no Harry Goodman, and easyJet is no Air Europe. For one thing, its ambitious fleet strategy is being matched by equally impressive traffic growth, judging by the 36 per cent rise in December passenger numbers easyJet reported yesterday Exponential growth of this kind always carries some risk Easyjet operates 27 Boeing 737 aircraft. In six years time it expects its fleet to have grown four-fold. Very few airlines have pulled off the trick of growing rapidly while keeping costs under control, and if easyJet lets rip on costs, it will certainly be fatal.To fulfill its ambitions, EasyJet has opened negotiations with Boeing and Airbus – presumably to play one off against the other on price. But it has not ruled out operating a mixed fleet, which in itself would be a significant additional cost.

There are any number of reasons why Stelios might fail in an industry as turbulent as air transport. But there is one precedent for success and it is called South West Airlines, the low-cost US carrier on which easyJet is modelled.South West operates 2,700 daily flights to just 55 destinations, which works out at 50 services a day per route. No flight is longer than two hours and all 360 of South West’s Boeing 737s provide the same single-class, open seating, no-meals, no-frills service The philosophy has served South West well. The airline has achieved 28 consecutive years of profit growth and, even after 11 September, which it survived without cutting a single seat or a single job, South West is still worth four times more than British Airways.So it is possible for easyJet to succeed. But the risks are great and the distractions are many.j.warner independent.co.uk.

A string of upbeat Christmas trading statements from major retailers was not enough to stop a stock market sell-off of retail shares yesterday as investors took profits and some analysts warned that this was “as good as it gets”. “There is a feeling that it won’t get much better than is, as interest rates and taxes are expected to increase going forward, Nigel Cobby, a retail analyst at Deutsche Bank, said.Nick Bubb, an analyst at SG Securities, described some of the share price reactions as “staggering”. He added: “The market is taking a churlish view saying, ‘who cares about this Christmas, what about the next one with the possibility of rising interest rates and concerns over consumer spending?’ But I would be surprised if this is the final verdict of the market.”Next, the fashion company, was the biggest retailer reporting yesterday and delivered like-for-like sales growth of 9 per cent in its high street stores in the 23 weeks to 5 January. Sales at the Next Directory business were up 20 per cent.However, Simon Wolfson, its chief executive, cautioned that the current growth rates were not sustainable. “We are planning for like-for-like sales to return to more normal levels of 3-5 per cent That it not to say we are predicting a downturn.