It’s no wonder Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon can operate with such assurance and certainty. The 2005 Qantas annual report reveals that Dixon was paid a total of $6.48 million last financial year, up from the $6.09 million paid in 2004.

Dixon was paid a basic salary of $1.905 million, up from $1.640 million in 2004. His cash incentive was a very rich $1.49 million, down from the richer still 1.59 million of a year ago. Including the cash and other non-cash benefits, his short-term incentive payment totalled $3.69 million, up from the $3.58 million in 2004.

“End of service,” super and travel benefits totalled another $1.53 million ($1.55 million) and he received $1.25 million in equity benefits, compared to $946,000 in the previous year. So with more than $12 million in salary and benefits in the past year, it’s no wonder Dixon has adopted the Henny Penny style of doomsday corporate forecasting. If he didn’t, some shareholders might wonder how he was justifying so much money when Qantas has been earning so much money.

Peter Gregg, the putative successor to Dixon, received a total of $3.63 million, up fractionally from the $3.61 of a year ago. Qantas chairman Margaret Jackson had a big pay rise, with her payments topping the half a million mark for the first time at more than $506,000, compared to $484,000 a year earlier. Her base pay edged higher to $372,171 from $371,756.

And although James Packer doesn’t get a cent from working at the family company PBL, but he did get some walking-around money from Qantas : $116,775 for 2005, compared to $37,883 in 2004 when was only there a few months.