Air traffic boss gets £1.2m bonus as industry battles with travel chaos
Martin Rolfe, boss of government-backed air traffic control operator NATS, has received a £1.2m bonus as aviation continues to battle travel delays and disruption.
The payment is part of a five-year bonus dated back to 2015, which was due to be paid in June 2020, the Sunday Telegraph reported first.
But following the pandemic’s impact on aviation, the bonus was delayed at the chief executive’s behest.
“[The bonus] was contractually payable to Martin Rolfe in tranches starting in ht efinancial year 2020-2021 but at his instigation was deferred given the financial challenges the company faced during the pandemic,” said a NATS spokesperson.
“The travel delays occurred outside the period covered in the annual report and were not caused by a failure of NATS services.
“Our performance year-to-date is in line with or better than targets agreed with customers and the regulator and are among the best of any Air Navigation Service Provider.”
In addition to the bonus Rolfe and chief financial officer Alistair Borthwick received an additional £245,000 incentives for meeting profit targets up to March 2022.
The move was criticised at an industry level, as aviation executives worried about the reputational impact it could have, especially because of the delicate period.”
“It’s distinctly galling to see this,” a source told the outlet. “It’s the epitome of the old saying that a ‘monopoly is only a bad thing until you’ve got one.’”
Air traffic controllers have been slammed for contributing to the ongoing chaos at airports.
Just last week, Easyjet’s chief executive Johan Lundgren said controller shortages remained an issue outside of airlines’ control.
“Air traffic control remains a problem,” he told journalists last Tuesday. “If you have a shortage of air traffic controllers it only takes one or two not to show up because of Covid and there are flow restrictions.
“You can’t plan for this.”