Industry Research - Executive Pay

• Skywest Inc. - Jerry Atkin, CEO and President: $1,568,287

• Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Subsidiary of Skywest Inc. - Bradford Holt, President and COO: $502,806

• Republic Airways Holdings Inc. - Bryan BedFord, CEO and President: $2,025,314

• ExpressJet Holdings Inc. - James Ream, CEO and President: $894,461

• Pinnacle Airlines Corp - Philip Trenary, CEO and President: $1,209,156

• Delta Airlines Inc - Richard Anderson, CEO and Director: $3,329,488

• UAL Corporation (United Airlines) - Glenn Tilton, CEO and President: $10,314,769

• AMR Corporation (American Airlines) - Gerard Asprey, CEO and President: $4,601,165

• Continental Airlines, Inc - Larry Kellner, CEO: $7,308,334

Just let those figures soak on your brain for a few moments. I think most of us in the aviation industry can agree that our executives should be compensated well, especially if the individual company is successful. Unfortunately for many of us, our companies are not successful - yet our executives continue to take quarterly and annual bonuses to pad their compensation packages. All the while, they're sending people out to the street because they must "re-align costs," or "cut costs." Whichever you choose.

The next industry research post will highlight the average salaries and compensation packages for the front-line employees of these companies.

Compensation figures are based off of data from BusinessWeek. Figures are total compensation, annual, short, and long term compensations.