SARS costs Qantas chief $1m bonus
Matthew Denholm and Malcolm Cole
09may03
THE SARS crisis which has ravaged Australia's tourism industry and forced another round of job cuts at Qantas has cost the airline's chief executive his annual performance bonus which last year was worth a million dollars.
Qantas chief Geoff Dixon yesterday told union leaders who were meeting with him about the fourth round of job losses in as many months that none of the airline's executives would receive performance bonuses this year in light of mass redundancies.
A Qantas spokeswoman last night confirmed the pledge.
"It is correct that no executive will be receiving a bonus this financial year, given the environment," she said.
She was unable to say what the performance-related bonuses would have been, but pointed to those paid last financial year as an indication.
In 2002, Mr Dixon received a performance bonus of $1 million and chief financial officer Peter Gregg was paid $672,000 extra.
Qantas unions have asked the ACTU to help them present a united front against the airline's repeated cuts.
Also yesterday, it was revealed Australia is moving to capitalise on its SARS-free status with a $7.9 million tourism campaign targeting Japan and New Zealand.
Tourism Minister Joe Hockey announced the campaign in response to claims from the inbound tourism industry that it faces a $2 billion loss because of SARS and the Iraq war.
Mr Hockey said Australia was also "negotiating significant arrangements in the US" for a relaunch of tourism promotion, put on hold earlier this year because of the war.
"We have just launched a more than $7 million campaign into our number-one market, NZ, and our number two market, Japan, promoting Australia as a destination," he said.
The campaign will pump $6.8 million into advertising on Japanese television, in magazines and on the internet.
It will target travel groups identified as being "more robust than others", such as backpackers and families.