easyJet waves goodbye to easyLand

Remember back in 1997 when British Airways opened its new Waterside headquarters in Harmondsworth near London Heathrow airport? Back then, it cost a cool £17 million (equivalent to £22 million today) to develop and was one of the UK's largest building projects, featuring a health centre, hairdressing salon, florist, travel centre, supermarket, bank, restaurants and an auditorium.
Fast forward to today, when low-cost carrier easyJet has just opened its new headquarters. Compare and contrast: refurbished at a cost of £3.1 million, Hangar 89 at London Luton airport (see bottom picture) was built in 1974 and retains what easyJet calls its "traditional" 1970s office style. But it has also been customised to fit easyJet's "open culture and principles of simplicity". Hangar 89 features 300,000 sq ft of office space and though it doesn't have a supermarket or bank, it can house three Airbus 319s or Boeing 737s.
But even the modest surroundings of easyJet's new headquarters are luxurious compared with "easyLand" (see top picture) - the rented Portakabin that until now has served as easyJet's base.
Hangar 89 and easyLand are just 150 metres apart, making relocation relatively easy - just as easyJet likes its operations.