The Marketplace Reader

JetBlue CEO latest to suffer with industry

Melissa Kaplan Jul 29, 2008

JetBlue reported $7 million quarterly loss last week, and CEO David Barger wants to show he, too, feels the pain. He’s cutting his base salary in half — instead of $500,000, he’ll be getting $250,000 (though the cut only applies to the six months from now till the end of the year, according to regulatory filings). He says he’s taking the reduction to “show solidarity with employees as the low-cost carrier struggles with soaring fuel prices and a slowing U.S. economy.”

According to Bloomberg News, Berger is at least the thiird CEO at one of the 10 largest U.S. airlines to cede pay in the face of record fuel prices and industry-wide job cuts.

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