Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport’s new general manager will be paid a salary of $280,000 a year.
John Selden, who is scheduled to take the job at the helm of the world's busiest airport Oct. 1 pending city council confirmation, will also be issued a city of Atlanta vehicle as "an added benefit."
The most recent permanent general manager, Roosevelt Council, took the position in 2016 with a base salary of $221,000, the same level the position has paid since 2010. Council earlier this year was moved to the role of chief financial officer for the city.
The question of pay was an issue some had raised during the search for a new airport manager.
Among other major airports around the country, some pay their top leaders significantly more. For example, Dallas-Fort Worth’s airport CEO gets a base salary of $496,186, and got a $171,285 bonus last year.
However, Selden, who will come to Atlanta from a position as deputy general manager at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, had an annual salary of $192,738, according to New York airport pay records.
Earlier this year, Bottoms said she asked the search committee to "not let pay be a factor in getting candidates."
“I didn’t want us to preclude any candidates because of a pay scale,” Bottoms said. “We essentially said we would cross that bridge when we get to it.”
Selden won’t be the highest-paid Atlanta official, however.
For example, shortly before former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed left office, he signed a three-year extension to Invest Atlanta CEO Eloisa Klementich’s contract, agreeing to pay her $309,000 a year.
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