"Politicians and remuneration isn't remotely linked to ability in any way shape or form."
Who said it was? What they do have though is way bigger budgets, much more responsibility and way more power than anyone in EI could ever dream of having.
Obama's salary for example, is approx 400k USD per year.
You think Muellers job is worth almost 5 times as much for running EI? (Approx 1.9million USD at todays rates)
Personally i don't, nowhere even close especially for a relatively small airline like EI.. I dont see any justification for that level of renumeration at all.