Life in the fast plane: Aston Martin defends chief’s £1.3m private jet budget
Luxury UK carmaker Aston Martin has defended spending over a million pounds for its departing chief executive to commute from Italy to the Midlands.
The company today said that the £1.3m spent on the weekly travel arrangement for Amedeo Felisa, running across 2022 and 2023, had been signed off by the company’s senior leadership and advisory team to maximise efficiency for the carmaker.
“The reimbursement of private flights was agreed by the board following consideration of the efficiency advantages around valuable time saved, productive time working as individuals and a team, as well as privacy, flexibility and convenience,” a spokesperson said.
The details emerged amid an ongoing debate in the City over executive pay at some of London’s largest listed companies.
Last week, over a third of shareholders led a revolt against a proposed £19m pay deal for Pascal Soriot, head of Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
The London Stock Exchange Group is also facing investor dissent over plans to boost its chief executive David Schwimmer’s pay to a reported £13.2m from £6.3m.
Felisa formerly headed up Italian sports car giant Ferrari between 2008 to 2016 and was parachuted into Aston Martin in 2022 to oversee the launch of three new front-engine models.
The DB12 launched last summer and the Vantage followed suit in February this year. The final model is set to release later this year.
Aston Martin will welcome former Bentley chief executive Adrian Hallmark as its new head in October.
The company will be hoping that Hallmark, who led Aston’s rival in the UK luxury car space for six years, can shift the company out of first gear as a listed entity.
Its share price has fallen 26 per cent so far this year in a hangover from an investor sell-off triggered by production issues with the DB12 at the end of last year.
In its annual results for 2023, Aston Martin’s losses more than halved to £239.8m from £495m in 2022.