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 2025.
Comparing pay among CEOs at major US airlines
I think it’s interesting to take a look at how US airline CEOs were paid in 2025, and to compare it to pay in previous years.
While this now goes back a few years, I think there’s a quirk worth mentioning, as 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 2025? Here’s a high level rundown, and I’ll also include pay from the three previous years. Here are the total compensation amounts:
- United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby earned $32.3 million in 2025, compared to $33.9 million in 2024, $18.6 million in 2023, and $9.8 million in 2022
- Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian earned $19.2 million in 2025, compared to $27.1 million in 2024, $34.2 million in 2023, and $9.6 million in 2022
- Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan earned $16.6 million in 2025, compared to $10.6 million in 2024, $9.3 million in 2023, and $5.3 million in 2022
- American Airlines CEO Robert Isom earned $13.9 million in 2025, compared to $15.6 million in 2024, $31.4 million in 2023, and $4.9 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 $32.3 million in compensation included a $1.2 million base salary, $8 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and $22.6 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.
I do think it’s interesting to look at the relative pay situation here, and how those numbers have changed over the years. There’s actually minimal change between 2025 and 2024, though some things stand out:
- 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)
- Poor Ed Bastian, his compensation sure has been trending downwards in the past few years 😉
- Bob Jordan sure got a nice raise, as Southwest’s stock has improved; but goodness, I’d say he only deserves his pay slightly more than Robert Isom
- Robert Isom’s pay has been pretty consistent for the past couple of years, and the $13.9 million is equal to around 13% of American’s net profit; obviously that’s not actually how we measure things, but still, that whole situation is rough, and I don’t know how the guy has a job
Bottom line
While airlines aren’t exactly the highest margin businesses, airline CEOs are compensated as if they are. 2025 was only the third year since the start of the pandemic where airline CEO compensation was uncapped. Pay at the “big four” airlines ranged from $13.9 million to $32.3 million.
Comparing 2025 to 2025, compensation remained relatively steady for the CEOs of United and American. Meanwhile there was a bit of a reversal with the Delta and Southwest CEOs, as Delta’s CEO got his compensation reduced, while Southwest’s CEO had his compensation increased significantly.
Anyway, when the poor guy in the bunch is still making eight figures, it’s hard to feel bad for anyone, right? 😉
What do you make of these compensation numbers?