MONTREAL - Total compensation for Bombardier’s top five executives fell four per cent last year to US$29.5 million, according to a proxy circular released ahead of the company’s May 2 annual meeting.

The decrease came despite a good financial year that saw the transportation giant post its first annual profit in five years.

CEO Alain Bellemare’s total pay remained unchanged at US$10.63 million. He earned a salary of US$1.1 million and received a cash bonus of US$2.8 million, down from US$3.2 million in 2017. Share-based and option-based awards each rose by US$704,700 or 34 per cent, to US$2.78 million. Other compensation decreased by about US$1 million.

Three of the four other senior executives saw their total compensation increase slightly, while former transportation president Laurent Troger’s compensation decreased 30 per cent to US$3.6 million with the elimination of a US$1.5-million bonus paid in 2017.

Chairman Pierre Beaudoin received almost US$800,000, including US$500,000 in fees that were unchanged from the prior year.

The 2018 compensation report came two years after the company made headlines when it boosted executive pay by nearly 50 per cent while laying off thousands of workers and receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies.

The resulting public outcry led Bellemare to ask the board of directors to delay some of the planned payments until 2020.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BBD.B)