No money or assets changed hands in the deal.Last year’s remuneration figures were complicated by the decision of the board that no options granted under a previous scheme should remain outstanding after two replacement plans came into force. But a spokesman justified the increases on the grounds that “directors took on additional responsibilities for the enlarged group in 1996″.Mr Wilson stepped up from the chief executive’s position in January following the retirement of the previous non-executive chairman, Sir Derek Birkin.RTZ merged its operations with those of its 49 per cent- owned associate CRA in December 1995. Even though 1996 was the first full-year since the merger of the group’s UK and Australian arms, pre-tax profits fell from pounds 1.42bn to pounds 1.11bn in the year to December.In the annual report, Mr Wilson described the year as “a comparatively poor one both for us and for the mining industry” after being hit by lower metal prices and exchange rate movements. This brought his total remuneration to pounds 1.62m, on top of which his accrued pension entitlement was increased by pounds 73,000 to pounds 307,000 during the year.
The new pay deal was part of a general upgrading of boardroom pay at RTZ-CRA, soon to be renamed Rio Tinto, which saw the total cost rise from pounds 4.32m to pounds 6.92m. As well as a basic salary which rose from pounds 455,000 to pounds 575,000, Mr Wilson cashed in options netting him a profit of nearly pounds 446,800 in 1996. Robert Wilson, executive chairman of RTZ-CRA, the world’s largest mining company, saw his remuneration jump by three-quarters to pounds 1.18m last year despite a slump in profits.

BA is the only British carrier with its own terminal at the airport.. The programme will include new road and rail access to the terminal, a shopping plaza and entertainments complex. Other businesses, including Ground Fleet Services, which operates and maintains airport vehicles, have been sold.Separately yesterday, BA said it would be investing an additional $100m on expanding its terminal facilities at New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport, the airline’s biggest long-haul destination. Less than a fortnight ago BA announced the creation of more than 700 jobs at its expanding operations at Gatwick Airport.

He went on: “It demonstrates that while we are looking for efficiencies in all areas of the business, we are working with staff – not against them – to achieve these.”At the centre of the three-year plan is the move to cut 5,000 jobs in some parts of the group and create 5,000 new posts in expanding areas such as customers services out of the existing 49,000-strong workforce. “Our business envisages that British Airways will have just as many employees at the turn of the century as it has now.”Mr Ayling hailed the agreement as a “milestone” in the cost-cutting drive, reflecting a view held inside the airline that ground staff were likely to be the hardest to convince about the merits of the strategy. Aircraft Services Heathrow had to find cuts worth pounds 20m, or face the prospect of redundancies or the possible sale of the business to an outside bidder.Announcing the pay deal, BA chief executive, Bob Ayling, again denied speculation that the carrier was planning to become a “virtual airline” by outsourcing many of its core operations to other companies. A fortnight ago union members had voted by about two to one in favour of the deal, which will mean wide-ranging changes to shift patterns, but union officials had spent the following days negotiating the final details.Divisional managers across British Airways were last year asked to identify cost savings to meet the pounds 1bn target by 2000. It includes ramp and baggage staff, along with employees who drive crew and passenger busses. A British Airways spokesman also said the carrier had made a commitment not to sell the division for three years.Aircraft Services Heathrow was responsible for a variety of ground activities, an area long regarded as one of the last bastions of so-called Spanish practices in the airline. Apart from the pay freeze, the deal includes a reduction of around 15 per cent in starting rates of pay for new recruits at the business, which employs 2,800.
In return, workers have been given a commitment by the airline to protect employment levels as long as the efficiency savings are achieved and maintained.