CEO Pay at Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport in 2016
Skift Take
Executive pay at Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport is about the same, even though company performance has recently varied. It's unclear how much of that discrepancy can be chalked up to differing norms and taxes in the countries where the firms are based.
Three of largest travel tech and distribution companies — Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport — say they link their CEOs' money-making opportunities to their business performance.
Yet the performance of the three companies has lately diverged, while the executive pay has remained comparable.
A look at CEO compensation at these companies shows that the bosses have all earned about the same in recent years, excluding temporary boosts when Sabre and Travelport emulated Amadeus and went public.
For example, prior to its 2014 IPO, Travelport boss Gordon Wilson received an equity award of $8.3 million with performance-based vesting that was granted in the run-up to the debut on the public markets to encourage a smooth ride.
In the three years since, Wilson has seen his total compensation otherwise remain about the same as his peers, despite overseeing his company's smaller gains in revenue and net income.
For instance, in 2016, Travelport had mere 6 percent increase in revenue, a percentage gain that was roughly half of what its peer companies turned in. (See charts, below.)
Similarly, the market capitalization of Travelport is roughly a tenth of that of Amadeus, even though the executive pay package is about the same for the CEOs at the two companies.
The pattern holds in past years, too.
