SIA chief among industry’s top-paid CEOs with 86% jump

Singapore Airlines Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Goh Choon Phong was paid S$6.7 million ($5 million) last financial year, an 86% increase that puts him among the best-paid leaders in the industry. 

Emerging from the Covid crisis with a record annual profit, Singapore Airlines said it would pay staff a bonus of about eight months’ salary, Bloomberg News reported last month. Goh, 59, had a base salary of S$1.1 million, which is lower than before the pandemic, according to the airline’s annual report, published Wednesday. The majority of his pay is bonuses and vested share awards.

Goh isn’t quite up there with US airline CEOs, but he’s ahead of most others. 

Company filings and annual reports show that Scott Kirby at United Airlines Holdings Inc. was paid $9.8 million last year, while Delta Air Lines Inc.’s Ed Bastian took home $9.6 million. Luis Gallego, head of British Airways Plc parent IAG, was paid €3 million ($3.3 million) and Qantas Airways Ltd.’s Alan Joyce, who has been criticized for his pay, received A$5.6 million ($3.7 million). Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s Carsten Spohr pocketed €5.1 million. 

The lofty wages and record profits reflect a dramatic turnaround in fortunes following the crisis years of Covid, when airlines around the world shed staff, grounded their fleets and stripped back services.  

Shares of Singapore Airlines have climbed 36% this year, third-best on the Straits Times Index in that period. They recently posted a 12-day run of gains, the longest rally since 2008, but were little changed Wednesday.

A Bloomberg gauge of leading world airline stocks is up 13% in 2023.