British Airways boss' salary hits £5m as pilots see pay cuts up to 14%

British Airways boss Willie Walsh saw his pay soar to £5 million last year.

But the huge payment hasn't gone down too well with some of his pilots, who are facing pay freezes and pay cuts.

Figures revealed in the annual report of BA's parent company International Airlines Group (IAG) show Walsh's overall pay deal included an £825,000 salary, an annual £1.3 million bonus, payouts from a long-term incentive plan of £2.59 million, and around £250k in pension and benefits.

But pilots at Spain's Iberia, which merged with BA in 2011 to form IAG, have just agreed to a 14 per cent pay cut.

Walsh did not take a performance-related bonus in 2012 as the merger of BA and Iberia to form IAG made a loss.

But last week IAG returned to the black. According to the Guardian, Walsh said: "I look back on last year with a sense of real pride and achievement for what people within IAG have done to put the business on a more secure footing."

He said he was targeting operating profits of €1.8bn by 2015, and added: "We continue to prove the critical logic of merging British Airways and Iberia through the cost and revenue synergies we are achieving."

But Antonio Polo, spokesman for the pilots' Sepla union, said Walsh's wage increase was too high.

He told The Sun: "This rise does seem exaggerated, particularly at a time when Luis Gallego (Iberia's CEO) has renounced a bonus of €630,000 (£521,000) and the pilots have taken a 14 per cent pay cut."

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