IAG boss gets £20k a month for two homes in Spain and UK

The boss of British Airways’ parent company has landed a £20,000 monthly allowance to help pay for his two homes in Spain and the UK, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. 

Luis Gallego, who was appointed chief executive of International Airlines Group (IAG) in September 2020, has been given a £500,000 pot to finance his living arrangements in the two countries where IAG has its main head offices. 

This big-budget allowance is payable to the airlines boss for two years, during which IAG has agreed to shell out over the extra costs associated with him splitting time between London and Madrid. 

Gallego, from Madrid, and his family moved to the UK prior to his appointment to the top job back in August 2020, for which he received a ‘series of relocation payments’ from the airlines giant. 

IAG owns Spanish airlines Iberia and Vueling, as well as the UK’s flagship carrier British Airways. 

The FTSE100 firm’s annual report said: ‘In 2021, the IAG CEO became eligible for a two-year, fixed-term £250,000 per annum transitionary allowance, enabling him to personally maintain a base in Madrid given the company’s significant operations and business in Spain.’ 

Since replacing Willie Walsh as the CEO of IAG, Gallego has taken two successive pay cuts during the pandemic as well as declining a bonus. 

Last year, he took home £738,000, whereas this year he will receive his full salary of £820,000. 

Earlier this year there was disquiet over the £6,550 a month awarded to new Barclays boss CS Venkatakrishnan to cover his accommodation costs when moving from the US to the UK. Gallego’s package dwarfs that, and is likely to prove controversial at a time when IAG has run up huge losses. 

IAG recently reported reduced losses of €2.9billion (£2.4billion) for the last financial year, but the company said it expects to become profitable in 2022.