The Highest Paid Travel CEOs in Europe in 2018
Skift Take
Amadeus’ Luis Maroto came out on top of Skift’s annual review of CEO pay at Europe’s biggest public travel and hospitality companies.
The long-serving CEO’s remuneration rose 5 percent over the previous year, totaling $5.6 million. Much of it — $3.4 million — was share-related with only around $1 million coming in the form of salary.
Although it is generally difficult to justify CEO pay, at least Maroto’s is a reward for success. The company’s market capitalization of just over $35 billion makes it the most valuable travel company on the list, and it has made a net profit of more than $1 billion in each of the last two years.
Second on our rundown was Fritz Joussen of integrated leisure travel company TUI Group. Joussen was awarded a package worth $5.3 million in 2018, which included $1.9 million in long-term share incentives.
The CEO with the biggest pay increase was Nick Varney of Legoland operator Merlin Entertainments, which is in the process of being taken private. The increase was largely due to a bigger long-term share award and a $402,000 bonus — his first since 2014. InterContinental Hotels Group CEO Keith Barr’s 43 percent increase is mostly down to him being in the job for a full year, since taking over in July 2017.
Fallers
One CEO who wasn’t happy with his own performance was Michael O’Leary of low-cost carrier Ryanair. In fall 2017, the airline suffered what it called a “pilot rostering failure,” which led it to cancel 2,000 of the 130,000 flights scheduled in September and October of that year.
O’Leary was unusually contrite in his response to the problem and subsequently decided to waive his bonus in 2018.
While O’Leary took some self-inflicted punishment, there was an altogether stranger situation at Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, where Jennifer Fox, one of the few female CEOs on the list, lasted just 101 days in the job.
In its annual report the company reports a remuneration figure of $0.3 million for Fox but then listed an additional $1.3 million in payment for loss of office. This figure included $0.8 million in annual salary.
“During the year, Jennifer Fox was appointed as the company’s group chief executive officer and as a director of the company. She served in that capacity until 27 September 2018, at which point her employment with the group ceased after she and the board mutually agreed it would be best for her to step down,” the company said in its remuneration report.
European Travel and Tourism CEO COMPENSATION 2018
| Company | Sector | CEO | Total Pay 2018 | change | Profit 2018 | change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amadeus | Tech | Luis Maroto | $5.6m | 5% | $1.1bn | 0% |
| TUI | Tour Operator | Fritz Joussen | $5.3m | -8% | $913m | 8% |
| Accor | Hospitality | Sébastien Bazin | $4.6m | -23% | $2.5bn | 370% |
| Lufthansa | Airline | Carsten Spohr | $4.3m | -9% | $2.4bn | -8% |
| IHG | Hospitality | Keith Barr | $3.8m | 43% | $352m | -35% |
| IAG | Airline | Willie Walsh | $3.8m | -23% | $3.2bn | 44% |
| Whitbread | Hospitality | Alison Brittain | $2.9m | -7% | $546m | 5% |
| Ryanair | Airline | Michael O’Leary | $2.6m | -29% | $1.5bn | 10% |
| EasyJet | Airline | Johan Lundgren* | $1.9m | n/a | $445m | 17% |
| Merlin | Theme Park | Nick Varney | $1.9m | 64% | $287m | 10% |
| Europcar | Car Rental | Caroline Parot | $1.8m | 14% | $155m | 128% |
| Melia Hotels | Hospitality | Gabriel Escarrer Jaume | $1.6m | 8% | $161m | 13% |
| Wizz Air | Airline | József Váradi | $1.4m | 3% | $307m | 12% |
| NH Hotel Group | Hospitality | Ramon Aragonés Marín | $1.1m | -4% | $139m | 218% |
| Air France-KLM | Airline | Benjamin Smith† | $1.1m | n/a | $458m | 152% |
| Parques Reunidos | Theme Park | Fernando Eiroa | $0.8m | 3% | $15m | 14% |
| Dart Group | Airline | Philip Meeson‡ | $0.6m | 3% | $138m | 44% |
| Millennium & Copthorne Hotels | Hospitality | Jennifer Fox§ | $0.3m | n/a | $116m | -42% |
*For the period between December 1, 2017, and September 30, 2018.
†For the period from September 17 to December 31, 2018.
‡Philip Meeson is technically the executive chairman, with Steve Heapy serving as CEO of travel subsidiaries Jet2 and Jet2holidays. Heapy was paid $1.3 million in 2018.
§Fox joined on June 19, 2018, and stepped down on September 27, 2018.
Methodology
To narrow down the list of companies, Skift only included those with a market capitalization of more than $1 billion as of the week beginning July 22, 2019 (sorry Thomas Cook, Norwegian, and others).
We also discarded cruise company Carnival because of its dual-listed structure. Trainline only recently went public so it has not been included. (According to the company’s prospectus in 2019 CEO Clare Gilmartin’s remuneration was $1.5 million.)
Where companies included former CEOs (e.g. Carolyn McCall at EasyJet and Jean-Marc Janaillac at Air France-KLM), we have chosen to leave them out in favor of the incumbents.
Conversions from original currencies (euros and pounds) were made during the week beginning July 22.
When companies gave multiple figures for remuneration, we’ve used the amount awarded in that financial year. We’ve altered our methodology so it’s not fair to compare 2017 to 2018, but here is our story from last year as a reference.
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