Shortly before the state aid starts flowing, the Austrian Airlines Executive Board paid off the bonus for 2019. That causes severe criticism – and a backtrack.
On Monday, Alexis von Hoensbroech cheered. One is very grateful «for us in this historically unprecedented Crisis and pandemic is helped», Explained the head of Austrian Airlines. The German Economic Stabilization Fund had previously approved the state aid packages for the Lufthansa subsidiaries.
This cleared the way for them Disbursement of 150 million euros in fresh equity from the Austrian treasury. The government in Vienna is also helping the national airline with a 90 percent guarantee on a bank loan of over 300 million. Mother Lufthansa injects another 150 million. The first money should flow in at the end of August.
Payout postponed during crisis
However, von Hoensbroech’s joy did not last long. Because on Wednesday (August 19) it became known that the board of directors and around 200 other executives from Austrian Airlines had received bonuses. In total, it is about 2.9 million euros. The top management level receives 500,000 euros of this.
The AUA managers actually receive their bonuses every spring. But because of the Corona crisis and the tight financial situation, the payout was postponed to July. The date was thus before the one on which the state money flows. Admittedly, aid was being negotiated for a long time, of which 150 million euros cannot be repaid.
“Missing any sensitivity”
In addition, the employees of Austrian Airlines had already agreed to a deal at the time which they forego 80 million euros annually. You are still in spa work. At the same time, there were still millions of repayments to be made to passengers for canceled flights. The criticism of the management’s behavior was not long in coming.
A spokesman for the FPÖ party immediately described Austrian Airlines as a “self-service store of the Republic” because managers received bonuses despite short-time work and state aid. And the Austrian finance minister Gernot Blümel said: “This approach is incomprehensible to me”. The approach “lacks any sensitivity”.
Board reacts
The criticism from the highest level also had an impact. On Wednesday (August 19), CEO von Hoensbroech said: “It was decided to voluntarily set aside the bonuses paid to the board for 2019”. This is done in addition to the already fixed waiver of two third parties of the income for the coming years.
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