New Thomas Cook chief executive Harriet Green could receive a pay package worth almost £3 million in her first year.
Green, who joined in July, is understood to be receiving a basic annual salary of £680,000, while she could also get as much as £1.5 million in a performance-related bonus – a quarter in the form of deferred shares.
Pension contributions, a car allowance and recompense for bonuses and options from her previous job – running electronics group Premier Farnell – take her potential payout for the year to almost £3 million.
In subsequent years her total pay package is thought to be nearer to £2 million.
Her annual salary is 20% lower than the £850,000 Cook’s former chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa was earning in his final year at the company.
Green is entitled to six months’ notice if she leaves, compared to the year-long period for Fontenla-Novoa.
Details of Green’s pay deal emerged at the weekend after the Sunday Times claimed to have seen a copy of her contract.
A Cook spokesman said chairman Frank Meysman believed in “proper pay for proper performance”.
Pay at Thomas Cook became a focus of investor criticism after Fontenla-Novoa, who stepped down in August last year, received a £1.17 million payout when he left the holiday group.
Green has already started to cut costs at the travel group and has warned of deeper cuts to come.
She outlined plans last month for £100 million in annual savings. Details of a new business strategy and targets are due to be unveiled in the spring.
The group posted a deeper full-year pre-tax loss of £485 million for 2012, compared with a £398 million loss a year earlier.
Green spent £115,000 buying 500,000 Cook shares at 23p apiece in November. Other directors have also bought shares in the business recently. The shares closed at 39.75p last week.