Qantas Airways executive pay falls 69%, CEO pay declines 83%

Qantas Airways announced (18-Sep-2020) its board and executive management elected to take no salary for three months. Annual bonuses that would have otherwise been paid based on non-financial performance targets were forgone. Shares awarded under the group's Long Term Incentive Plan in 2017 vested at 50%. This was based on the Qantas Group ranking first among peer airlines for its share price performance over a three year period, even after factoring in the impact of the COVID crisis. The total value of these shares received by executive management was less than the base pay they gave up in FY2020. Combined, the factors resulted in total executive pay for FY2020 dropping by 69% compared with FY2019. Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce's pay declined 83% from AUD9.9 million (USD7.2 million) in FY2019 to AUD1.7 million (USD1.2 million) in FY2020, with the larger drop due to Mr Joyce and the board agreeing for him not to receive the 343,500 shares associated with his long term incentive from 2017. A decision on whether these shares will ultimately vest or lapse has been deferred until at least Aug-2021. The chairman and group CEO continued their period of zero pay during Jul-2020 before moving to 65% of base salary/fees from 01-Aug-2020. The rest of the board and executive management have received 85% of their base pay/fees since Jul-2020. [more - original PR]