Ben Smith, CEO of airline Air France-KLM, waives a bonus for this year and hands in 25 percent of his regular salary, he said in a statement. Fuss had arisen around Air France-KLM in recent days because Smith would receive a bonus.
Smith refers to statements he made earlier on March 16 to cut his reward by a quarter. “In the context of the difficult period the Air France-KLM Group is going through, this reduction clearly includes my variable compensation for the financial year 2020.”
Minister Wopke Hoekstra (Finance) already stated that the bonus had to be removed to clear the way for emergency support from the Dutch government for Air France-KLM.
Air France-KLM, like the entire aviation sector, suffers from measures to combat the corona virus. The French and Dutch governments are therefore expected to support the group with an emergency package worth EUR 10 billion.
Pieter Elbers, CEO of subsidiary KLM, also contributes 20 percent of his salary. “The impact of COVID-19 on KLM is unprecedented,” said Elbers in a press release.
“No one has been able to foresee the crisis we are in now, and developments have followed rapidly in recent weeks. It has now become clear that the consequences of COVID are not only major, but will also last longer.”
Follow the latest developments around the virus in our live blog.
The coronavirus in short
–
–
–
– .
