US Airways CEO 2008 compensation: $5.4M
— -- US Airways CEO Doug Parker's pay package totaled $5.4 million in 2008, roughly the same as the previous two years.
The biggest pieces of his compensation were stock and option grants valued at $3.7 million, according to an annual proxy statement filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The cash portion added up to nearly $1.7 million: $550,000 in salary and $1.14 million in bonuses.
His salary has been the same since 2001. The proxy statement places him 6th among 11 CEOs in the airline's "peer" group, ahead of AirTran's CEO and behind Hawaiian's. United's CEO tops that list at $850,000.
Half the bonus was tied to the airline's vastly improved operations in 2008, when it went from worst to first in on-time performance among the major hub-and-spoke airlines.
There was no financial bonus because the airline lost $2.2 billion, versus a profit of $427 million in 2007, due to a spike in fuel prices and, late in the year, losses on its fuel hedges as oil prices plunged.
The other half of the bonus was based on the airline's stock performance over a three-year period that ended in December. The stock has sunk along with all airline stocks in the past year, but performed well after the company showed stronger than expected results in the early days of the America West-US Airways merger.
Parker, 47, received a combination of restricted stock and stock appreciation rights last spring and summer. As he did last year, Parker downplayed the $3.7 million accounting value attached to the stock portion of his package. He said they are worth approximately $200,000 at today's stock price. US Airways share closed Thursday at $3.79. The airline's stock fell by nearly 50% last year due to the oil spike followed by the economic downturn.
US Airways President Scott Kirby, whose salary was boosted to $510,000 from $490,000 in 2007, had a pay package valued at $3.6 million.
The airline's annual meeting will be held in New York this year. It is schedule for June 10 at a law firm. It has rotated among different cities, including Tempe, since the 2005 merger.
