Pay cuts for Air NZ executives as earnings slide

The pay of Air New Zealand's 13-member executive has fallen by around 18 percent in the past year, chief executive Rob Fyfe says.

Mr Fyfe said he had taken a pay cut of more than 20 percent in the 12 months to June, The New Zealand Herald reported today.

Hit by sharply rising fuel prices, the national carrier this week posted a 24 percent drop in normalised earnings to $197 million for the year to June, although operating revenue was up 9.1 percent.

Figures in accounts released this week show the highest paid, presumably Mr Fyfe, saw total remuneration earned fall from between $2.94m and $2.95m to between $2.25m and $2.26m.

Around 1500 other salaried staff will get increases only if they are met by productivity gains.

Mr Fyfe said it was only fair that as business performance went down, so did pay.