Hawaiian Air to pay
top exec $550,000

Mark Dunkerley will make a little
less than his predecessors

Hawaiian Airlines has approved a $135,000 raise for its newly promoted president and chief executive, Mark Dunkerley, who took the top spot at the carrier when it emerged from bankruptcy in June.

Dunkerley previously made $415,000 in his former role as Hawaiian's president and chief operating officer. Under his new three-year employment agreement, approved Thursday, Hawaiian will pay Dunkerley a $550,000 base salary and a $1,000-a-month automobile allowance, according to a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

If Dunkerley meets targets, he also will be eligible to receive an annual bonus ranging from 100 percent to 200 percent of his base pay. Dunkerley already has received options to purchase more than 1 million shares of common stock of the carrier's parent company Hawaiian Holdings Inc.

The 41-year-old Dunkerley's pay raise comes at a time when management salaries are under fire in the struggling airline industry.

Hawaiian's former trustee, Joshua Gotbaum, who received $600,000 in salary and $120,000 in paid living expenses, earlier this month drew the ire of the company's chairman and local airline labor leaders with his request for an $8 million success fee.

A hearing on that request has been rescheduled for Sept. 29.

Dunkerley's predecessor John Adams, who served as chairman and CEO of the company before he was removed in May 2003 over questionable financial decisions, made $600,000 a year. Adams hired Dunkerley in December 2002.

Aloha Airlines' CEO David Banmiller, Dunkerley's chief rival, is getting an annual salary of $455,400 -- reduced by pay cuts from $562,222 -- and a $90,000-a-year housing and car allowance. Banmiller also is entitled to two years' severance and a 5 percent stake in Aloha Airlines.

A licensed commercial pilot, Dunkerley has been on the air and the ground in the industry. Born in Bogota, Colombia, to British parents, Dunkerley was raised in Washington, D.C., and is a naturalized American citizen. His start in the business was in 1985 as assistant to the CEO of Miami International Airport.

Next, Dunkerley spent a decade in management at British Airways, where he eventually rose to senior vice president of its America/ Caribbean division. Dunkerley left British Airways in 1999 to become chief operating officer of Worldwide Flight Services, a Texas-based provider of ground services to the aviation business.

In April 2001, he joined Roberts, Roach & Associates in Washington as executive vice president. Before joining Hawaiian Airlines, Dunkerley was on loan from the consulting firm to Sabena Airlines Group, the Belgian international carrier. Dunkerley had the job of chief operating officer until he was released when Sabena went through an ownership change and bankruptcy.