Rex rewards all-male board and exec team with pay rises

Rex paid its all-male board and executive team at least 20 per cent more in the last year despite a $46m annual loss.

Rex deputy chairman John Sharp saw his total earnings with the airline more than double in the 2022 financial year. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Rex has paid its all-male board and executive team – some 17 people – at least 20 per cent more in the 2022 financial year, the airline's annual report has revealed.

Rex deputy chairman John Sharp saw his total package more than double from $155,970 to $338,660, thanks to long-term benefits worth about $185,000.

Neville Howell, the airline's executive director and chief operating officer, was the highest paid employee, with a total package of $474,978, followed by the general manager of corporate services Irwin Tan on $390,062.

But Rex chairman Lim Kim Hai has never drawn a salary.

Biographies of the board and executive team members revealed that for another year, Rex had not appointed any women to its most senior management group. The airline’s diversity policy says Rex believes diversity was about recognising and valuing the contribution of all staff, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, culture, ethnicity and religion.

“Rex believes that is reverse discrimination to have in place policies that unfairly assist and advance the interest of any particular group,” the policy reads.

“Hence Rex will not subscribe to an affirmative policy to simply fulfil a quote for a minority group.”

The policy went on to state that there was one exception to this rule, with Rex prioritising employment pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

In his annual report foreword, Mr Lim described Rex as “one of the world’s most successful airlines”, and emphasised the challenges of the past couple of years.

Despite an annual net loss of $46m in the 2022 financial year, Rex’s accumulated profits over past 18 years added up to more money in absolute terms than Qantas, Mr Lim said.

Among the highlights of the past year was the airline’s strong on-time performance against a backdrop of some of the worst months for flight delays on record.

For the year to June 30, Rex achieved an 85.4 per cent on time performance and 2.3 per cent cancellation rate to finish well ahead of its larger rivals Qantas, Virgin Australia and Jetstar.

Only half of the $150m investment by PAG Asia Capital for Rex’s expansion into major city routes, had been drawn upon and a number of network changes were proving a success.

These included a diversion of resources from six underperforming regional routes to three more lucrative city pairs where Qantas previously had a monopoly.

Since the end of the 2022 financial year, Rex had finalised the purchase of fly-in, fly-out operator National Jet Express, the regional services arm of Cobham Aviation.

Mr Lim said the acquisition would see NJE become Australia’s “premier FIFO operator”.

“Resource companies all over Australia can now count on a modern, comfortable and environmentally-friendly fleet for their FIFO needs instead of relying on 30-year-old Fokker 100 aircraft used predominantly by the other operators,” he said.