Hi Bealine,
If Willie Walsh was serious about saving BA's cash, he could, and should, start by slashing his own £12000 a week pay - until he's achieved something to deserve it!!!
While he was CEO at Aer Lingus, one of the major newspapers did a survey of CEO pay in Ireland. They created a 'league table' based on company profitability relative to CEO salary.
Guess who was the BEST PAID CEO in Ireland on that league table? Yes, you guessed it, oor Wullie!
Given that Aer Lingus was a loss making venture at the time you might say Wullie would have figured high on the list, no matter what he was paid. But he topped the CEO's of succesful Irish globalised companies on multi-million pound packages.
I seem to recall even MOL couldn't touch his position!
And meanwhile he was slashing workers salaries and conditions while still sticking his own snout in the trough to the tune of 400K per year plus bonuses - not bad given that just 3 years before he was a lowly pilot, where top of scale would have been around 100K after 26 years service! In 2001 he had 20 years served.
While he was (famously) selling the paintings off the boardroom walls, couldn't he just have been satisfied with the salary he'd have earned if he'd ever made it to a senior captains scale?
Sadly, no.
Not exactly a 'leader by example' then. Hence the massive strife that accompanied his tenure.
The FAT CAT label fits Wullie snugly. He has a small-man complex to beat the band.
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