EasyJet profits trigger £6.4m payout for boss
PAY for EasyJet’s top staff doubled last year as the airline beat targets for soaring profits and punctuality.
Carolyn McCall was awarded a total of £6.4m, including £4.6m in long-term share awards and a bonus of £1.1m, EasyJet’s annual report showed yesterday. Her salary will rise from £665,000 to £681,000 next year.
Finance boss Chris Kennedy, meanwhile, was paid a total of £3.7m including £2.7m in long-term share awards. This pay packet compares to £1.8m last year.
The airline has handed out these bonuses following a 51 per cent rise in annual profits to a record £478m, beating market forecasts.
The FTSE 100 company’s bumper results prompted a £175m shareholder payout in the form of a special dividend, announced last month.
EasyJet also sets its bonuses based on punctuality, which was 87 per cent, compared to a bonus trigger set at 80 per cent and a top-end goal of 88 per cent.
Costs per seat, meanwhile, rose to £36.81, meaning just 11.7 per cent of this part of the bonuses was paid out.
Overall, McCall and Kennedy were awarded 86.7 per cent of their maximum possible bonus.
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who founded the firm and remains its biggest shareholder, yesterday hit out at the awards. “A nice job if you can get the other directors to vote for it. Yet another case of City insiders enriching themselves without taking any risk.”
The news came as EasyJet yesterday reported a 3.4 per cent rise in passengers during November, taking its annual traffic growth to 3.7 per cent, or almost 61.2m overall.