The so-called golden era of cheap airfares has ended, and Flight Centre founder, Graeme Turner, could not be happier.
The news sent shares in the travel services group soaring as much as 11 per cent, adding more than $74 million to the value of his stake in Flight Centre.
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This is on top of the $21 million worth of franked dividends Turner will receive from the company this year, including $14.3 million he will receive in October.
The biggest factor in Turner's good fortune is his prediction at last year's results that "there's no way fares could go any lower".
Flight Centre's reported last year that eight of its top 10 destinations were cheaper than the previous year with "London and LA [Los Angeles] significantly down," said Turner.
Deflation is still a problem, but the group reported on Thursday that it expects a "more normal environment" with modest fare decreases or increases "rather than steep discounting across the board".
Turner is heavily reliant on his stake in Flight Centre, given the group could not be accused of overpaying its talent.
His base salary was just $400,000 last year, and he received short term incentives worth another $275,000.
The company points out that even if Turner managed to double the company's earnings last year, he still would have been paid less than the median total remuneration of an ASX50-100 CEO of $2.9 million.
As Flight Centre board member, former Wallabies captain John Eales, told investors in 2015: "Our very own Graham Turner (Skroo) has in the past been judged Australia's best value CEO."
"Skroo's salary again made headlines during 2014/15, when he was identified as the second-lowest paid CEO" among the nation's top 100 listed companies, Eales said. "Hopefully he didn't see it!"
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