Qantas has slashed short-term bonuses for its senior leadership, following a cyber breach in late-June which exposed millions of customers’ personal data.
Releasing its annual report for the year ended 30 June, the Australian carrier says it is cutting the executive bonuses by 15% for the fiscal year.
Group CEO Vanessa Hudson will see her pay slashed by A$250,000 ($163,000), while five other executives on the Qantas leadership team will lose a combined A$550,000.
Airline chair John Mullen says the bonus cuts reflect the leadership team’s “shared accountability, while acknowledging the ongoing efforts to support customers and put in place additional protections for customers”.
Qantas in late-June was hit by a data breach at one of its contact centres, with the personal information of over 6 million customers compromised. The incident occurred when a cyber criminal “targeted a call centre and gained access to a third-party customer servicing platform”, according to the airline.
“While we recognise that the investigations into this incident may not be finalised for some time and there may be other outworkings, we believe it is important for both our executives and shareholders that the remuneration consequences of this incident be dealt with this year,” it adds.
Still, the annual report shows that Qantas’ senior leadership salaries were higher than the year-ago period, despite the bonus cuts. Hudson’s annual salary, for example, stood at around A$6.3 million, higher than the A$4.4 million in the previous financial year.
Similarly, the five other executives, which includes chief financial officer Andrew Glance and Jetstar Group chief Stephanie Tully, also saw their annual salaries increase year on year.
Qantas Group reported a full-year underlying pre-tax profit of A$2.4 billion – its second-higher annual profit on record – on the back of strong travel demand across different market segments.