Delta Air Lines chief executive Richard Anderson received a compensation package worth $17.4 million last year, while the company reported an $8.9 billion annual loss.
The package included $600,000 in base salary, $8.7 million in future stock awards and stock options valued at $8 million, along with other compensation. Delta filed executive compensation information in a regulatory filing Thursday.
Ed Bastian, Delta’s president and chief executive of its Northwest operations, received a package worth $10.8 million last year, including a $500,000 base salary, $5.2 million in stock awards and options valued at nearly $5 million, along with other compensation.
Their compensation includes stock awards and options from Delta’s merger with Northwest Airlines and its emergence from bankruptcy.
Many of the stock awards in the 2008 packages are restricted and cannot be sold now, while the options — or rights to buy shares in the future at set prices — have no value at Delta’s Thursday share price of $6.70.
Delta executive pay could influence campaigns by unions from Northwest seeking to organize Delta flight attendants and ground workers.
“Any time executives pay themselves multi-million dollar salaries when at a company that is not profitable, after extracting pay cuts from employees, it disenfranchises the employees,” said Joseph Tiberi, spokesman for the International Association of Machinists, which represents Northwest airport workers.
Delta said its employees across the company earned more last year because of the emergence from bankruptcy and the merger.
Anderson and Bastian sent a memo to employees Wednesday with a value for their “take-home pay” including cash and benefits and the value of vested stock. That figure was $2.5 million for Anderson and $5.2 million for Bastian. It noted that their base pay did not change last year or this year. Because Delta was unprofitable last year, employees did not get profit sharing payouts and Anderson and Bastian said they did not get a cash bonus.
In 2007, Anderson’s compensation totaled about $11.3 million, mostly in stock and options.
The proxy statement filed Thursday included a shareholder proposal for cumulative voting in the election of directors. Delta’s board recommended a vote against the proposal.
