The Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN) share price is bucking the wider market sell-off today.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) airline stock are up 0.6%, trading for $5.36 apiece. That compares favourably to the 1.2% loss posted by the ASX 200 at this same time.
But there could be more pain ahead for the Qantas share price.
Here's the latest.
Image source: Getty Images
ASX 200 airline cutting executive bonuses
In many ways, things have been going swimmingly for the airline.
Indeed, Qantas reported record underlying profits of $2.5 billion for FY 2023. And on 10 August the Qantas share price was still up 9.4% in 2023.
Since then, however, the company has run into various turbulent headwinds.
That's seen the Qantas share price dive 17.5% since 10 August.
The troubling issues include allegations from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) that the airline sold tickets to flights that were already cancelled.
This was followed by a Federal Court ruling that Qantas illegally sacked 1,700 workers, whose jobs were outsourced in the wake of the pandemic.
The rapid turn in customer and investor sentiment saw long-running CEO Alan Joyce abruptly bring forward his retirement on 5 September.
But the saga didn't end there.
Qantas' annual report indicated Joyce would walk away with $21.4 million for his final year of leadership.
That led to some significant customer and investor frustration.
And it saw Qantas chairman Richard Goyder release what was clearly intended to be a mollifying statement following the annual report.
Commenting on Joyce's FY 2023 remuneration, Goyder said:
In addition to $2.2 million in short term bonuses that have been withheld, a further $8.3 million of a total adjusted $21.4 million is subject to clawback should the board determine that necessary.
When combined with additional long-term incentives already granted, a total of $14.4 million is subject to malus and clawback if considered necessary.
While no decision has yet been reached, it looks like Joyce could see his FY 2023 payout reduced to 'only' $7 million.
In other efforts to repair the airline's battered image and improve the Qantas share price performance, Goyder said the board had also applied its discretion "to reduce short term incentives for senior executives for FY23 by 20% in recognition of the customer and brand impact of cumulative events".
And he wasn't done yet, noting that the balance of top-level managers' short-term FY 2023 incentive bonuses will also be withheld until the matter with the ACCC is resolved.
Looking ahead, Goyder added, "The board has significantly increased the weighting on customer outcomes for remuneration in FY24 and introduced it as a metric on future long-term incentives."
Qantas share price snapshot
Despite the big retrace over the past weeks, the Qantas share price remains up 2% over the past year.
