Heathrow boss Colin Matthews gets £151k pay-rise just months after snow airport chaos

Heathrow boss Colin Matthews gets £151k pay-rise just months after snow airport chaos

The boss of Heathrow, who admitted the airport was ‘overwhelmed’ by the pre-Christmas snow, had a £151,000 pay rise in 2010, it was revealed today.

Colin Matthews, chief executive of airport operator BAA, saw his pay increase from £820,000 in 2009 to £971,000 for the year ending 2010.

BAA said he had ceased making contributions to the company's pension scheme and that equivalent cash payments had been made to him and included in the £971,000 figure.

After the chaos at Heathrow, where the bad weather led to hundreds of flight cancellations and Christmas getaway passengers being forced to camp overnight in terminals, Mr Matthews said he would forego his annual bonus for 2010.

This figure was believed to be in the region of £400,000 to £500,000. However, Mr Matthews still stands to receive a long-term incentive scheme bonus in 2012 if BAA meet certain performance targets.

Earlier this week, Mr Matthews told the House of Commons Transport Committee that Heathrow had planned for only 2.4in of snow before Christmas and had got a lot more than that.

 

 

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He accepted that communication with airlines could have been better after Virgin Atlantic told the committee that the first the airline had heard that a closed runway was reopening at Heathrow was when the Prime Minister announced it through the media.

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Christmas ruined: Flight cancellations left thousands sleeping on terminal floors

Meanwhile, BAA said today that its six UK airports handled 7.1 million passengers in February 2011 - a 0.2 per cent fall on the February 2010 figure.

Heathrow passenger numbers rose 0.5 per cent, but Stansted was down 6.3 per cent and Southampton airport handled 9.5 per cent fewer passengers.

BAA's Scottish airports had a good month, with Edinburgh up 5.0 per cent, Aberdeen up 4.9 per cent and Glasgow up 3.9 per cent.