Which US Airline CEO Was Highest Paid In 2024? ($33.9 Million)

In recent weeks, we’ve seen major US airlines release their proxy statements, which contain all kinds of interesting information. Among those is the executive compensation that these airlines paid in 2024.

Comparing pay among US airline CEOs

I think it’s interesting to take a look at how US airline CEOs were paid in 2024, and to compare it to pay in previous years.

There’s an interesting quirk, because airline CEO compensation was capped from 2020 to 2022. That’s because the CARES Act provided government aid to all US airlines, though it came with some stipulations, which applied through April 1, 2023. With the CARES Act, CEOs at US airlines had their pay capped. They could earn at most $3 million, plus 50% of their total compensation that exceeded $3 million in 2019.

With that in mind, what did airline CEO pay look like in 2024? Here’s a high level rundown, and I’ll also include 2023 and 2022 pay. Here are the total compensation amounts:

• United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby earned $33.9 million in 2024, compared to $18.6 million in 2023, and $9.8 million in 2022
• Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian earned $27.1 million in 2024, compared to $34.2 million in 2023, and $9.6 million in 2022
• American Airlines CEO Robert Isom earned $15.6 million in 2024, compared to $31.4 million in 2023, and $4.9 million in 2022
• Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan earned $10.6 million in 2024, compared to $9.3 million in 2023, and $5.3 million in 2022

It’s important to emphasize that while the above are the amounts of the total compensation, the structure of this varied by airline, so we’re not talking about all cash compensation here.

As you can tell, United’s Scott Kirby was the highest paid CEO. His $33.9 million in compensation included a $1.2 million base salary, a $3 million bonus, $5.1 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and $24.4 million in stock awards.

What can we really make of these numbers?

There’s no denying that at publicly traded companies in the United States, we have some of the highest executive compensation in the world. CEOs at US airlines make multiples of what CEOs at most foreign airlines make, and that’s just a commonly accepted practice.

Obviously I find executive

I do think it’s interesting to look at the relative pay situation here, compared to last year. If you ask me, the 2024 compensation numbers are a lot more reflective of performance than in 2023:

• It makes sense that Scott Kirby is the highest paid industry CEO, since the airline has been improving its financial performance, and the company’s stock has been on fire (which is ultimately what the board cares about)
• Ed Bastian’s pay has been relatively consistent, which makes sense, since the carrier’s performance has also been pretty consistent
• It’s interesting to see Robert Isom make less than half of what he made last year; based on American’s performance, it makes sense that he’s being compensated a lot less than his counterparts at Delta and United
• Regarding Bob Jordan, ummm, I’m not sure why he has a job, and I’d say his pay is around $10.5 million too high, for simply “yes, siring” literally anything and everything that the activist investors want

Bottom line

While airlines aren’t exactly the highest margin businesses, airline CEOs are compensated as if they are. 2024 was only the second year since the start of the pandemic where airline CEO compensation was uncapped. Pay at the “big four” airlines ranged from $10.6 million to $33.9 million.

Comparing 2024 to 2023, compensation remained relatively steady for the CEOs of Delta and Southwest. Meanwhile there was a bit of a reversal with the American and United CEOs, as American’s CEO got his compensation cut in half, while United’s CEO had his compensation doubled (give or take).

Anyway, when the poor guy in the bunch is still making eight figures, it’s hard to feel bad for anyone, right?