'holic,
These are some figures for CEO remuneration for 2010. They are in $A, and include cash and non-cash payments, bonuses etc :
Qantas $2.9m (down from $3.6 the previous year)
British Airways $1.5m
Singapore Airlines $1.9m
Cathay Pacific $1.4m
Singair and Cathay are also making decent profits. Maybe QAN_shareholder can explain how AJ is worth a 50 - 100% premium over other better performing CEOs?
Just to reiterate I think Australian CEO salaries are way too high but if you want some figures...
The median remuneration for CEOs of the 20th to 50th largest companies in the ASX was $3.6m in 2010. Yes it is way too high but Qantas is not out of line.
International comparisons are always going to flatter Australian salaries currently due to the exchange rate. I am guessing here but I suspect if you compare average Qantas cabin crew and engineers salaries to British Airways equivalents you might find they are also 50%+ higher (happy to be corrected if I'm wrong). And if you did the same thing with Singapore and Hong Kong I imagine it would be 100%+ higher. If you have figures for pilots translated at current exchange rates I would be interested to see them.
And just in case the rumour resurfaces that Qantas executives are the best paid in the world, Delta's CEO earned over US$8million last year.