easyJet shareholder Stelios plans protest vote against fleet expansion

LONDON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - easyJet's biggest shareholder Stelios Haji-Ioannou said he would use some of his shares to vote against the re-election of the company's chairman, as part of a protest against the low cost airline's plan to expand its fleet.

Haji-Ioannou, who owns about 33 percent of the company, said on Tuesday that he would use 3 percent of his holding to vote against chairman John Barton at the company's annual meeting on Feb. 9.

"In our view the best way to increase the earnings per share and send the share price up again is to reduce the incremental aircraft in the fleet from 2018 onwards," Haji-Ioannou said in a statement.

easyJet earlier on Tuesday said that it planned to add capacity into the market at the rate of 9 percent this year, and it has a long-term plan to add more planes to its fleet, even as air fares fall.

Its shares traded down 9.4 percent at 1158 GMT. (Reporting by Sarah Young, editing by James Davey)