Icelandair director Björgólfur Jóhannsson takes home 39 million ISK per year, while his company loses 30 million ISK each day.
Viðskiptablaðið reports that combined together, the salaries of the company’s top executives totals 258.7 million ISK. At the same time, the company lost 10.7 billion ISK in the past year.
The news is especially ironic in light of the fact that just a few days ago, Jóhannsson complained to Viðskiptablaðið that foreign investors were shying away from his company, adding that the company was in too great a debt with interest rates set way too high.
Icelandair has been one of the country’s strongest companies, but operational costs skyrocketed with the banking collapse. Added to this were labor woes brought on when airplane mechanics went on strike due to what they felt was too little a pay increase. Parliament passed a law shortly thereafter forcing them back to work.
The recent eruption at Eyjafjallajökull has hit the company especially hard. Whether any of the directors are willing to take a pay cut in order to help the company remains to be seen.