American Airlines
Few CEOs make much of their compensation in salary, but most receive something. Not Doug Parker. He doesn’t take a salary at all.
Instead, Parker earns his compensation in stock. Parker earned a little more than $11 million in compensation, with slightly more than half as a reward for American’s relative pre-tax margin. The rest was from restricted stock that vested.
“In our view, the simplicity of Mr. Parker’s compensation structure is ideal,” DeNardi wrote.
For the past three years, Parker has asked the board to set his compensation below Delta and United’s CEO pay, according to American’s SEC filing. The board noted that Parker said he wanted to be paid less than his peers because American’s front-line employees, who generally work under union contracts, have earned less than workers at Delta and United.
However, last month, American gave its flight attendants and pilots raises, so it is possible Parker’s future pay will increase.
Spirit Airlines
Spirit CEO Bob Fornaro earned $7.2 million in 2016 total compensation, including a base salary of almost $550,000. He received cash bonuses of nearly $850,000 for meeting targets on costs, unit revenues, on-time performance and complaint rate.
Like most CEOs, much of Fornaro’s compensation came in equity. He received awards worth $5.7 million.
Southwest Airlines
Southwest CEO Gary Kelly has one of the more complicated total compensation packages, but he was well-rewarded last year, earning almost $6.2 million. His package included a base salary of $675,000, and a discretionary bonus of $228,000.
Alaska Airlines
CEO Brad Tilden, now leader of America’s fifth-largest airline after he led Alaska’s acquisition of Virgin America, earned roughly $4.2 million in total compensation last year, including $488,000 in base salary. With a cash incentive of almost $1 million, he was rewarded for Alaska’s operational performance, its employee engagement, its customer satisfaction scores, its costs, and its overall profitability.
He also earned $2.2 million in equity because of Alaska’s return on invested capital and its total shareholder return.
Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian’s Mark Dunkerley, who received $3.7 in total compensation last year, is another CEO with a complicated package. He earned $722,000 in base salary, as well several cash bonuses totaling nearly $1 million.
In determining his bonuses, the board not only looked at typical metrics — like earnings — but also examined Hawaiian’s rankings from Conde Nast Traveler, and in the annual Airline Quality Rankings survey. The board also evaluated Dunkerley based on employee surveys and the carrier’s on-time performance.
“Similar to Southwest, it seems to us like it would be difficult for a CEO to actively be managing to this many different metrics and suspect a more simplified approach would be more effective,” DeNardi said.






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Weird how our CEO gets paid more than the CEO of Southwest, Hawaiian, Alaska, or United, yet we are supposed to be paid much less than the pilots of those carriers.