This includes the managing director John Guscic and the board reducing their salary and fees by 20 per cent until conditions return to normal. Mr Guscic has also agreed to forgo any bonus this year.
“With Covid-19 placing downward pressure on bookings, we are focused on mitigating the short-term impact to earnings but importantly we remain intent intent on retaining our leadership positions in our global WebBeds business and Australian Webjet OTA.”
Helloworld staff are being asked to take paid or unpaid leave. Credit:AFR
Helloworld also said it is “not possible to provide meaningful guidance at this time” and said it will cut costs across its entire business, including asking staff to take paid or unpaid leave.
Helloworld chairman Garry Hounsell and the other directors will not be paid any fees for the rest of the financial year, chief executive Andrew Burnes will take a 30 per cent pay cut and his executive management team will also take a 25 per cent pay cut.
“Over the last two weeks we’ve seen a steady decline in bookings in some parts of our business, particularly cruise, inbound to Australia, wholesale to Asia and Europe and in corporate international travel,” said Mr Burnes.
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At the same time the travel group is seeing cancellations increase in these areas and it expects lower demand to continue into the first quarter – and possibly into the second quarter of the next financial year.
“So we are taking action to now to reduce our costs to sustainable levels based upon what we are seeing in the market in Australia and New Zealand at present.”
The news did not surprise the markets. Webjet shares were down marginally to $7.28 around midday, and Helloworld shares were down one per cent to $2.24.
