Rolls-Royce chief executive Warren East saw his pay skyrocket by more than £1.6m last year, despite presiding over a loss-making year and a series of issues with the firm’s engines which grounded a British Airways jet for nearly a year.

East did not receive a rise in his base salary, but was the beneficiary of the firm’s so-called long-term incentives of £1.7m, bringing his total remuneration from £2.3m in 2017 to £3.9m last year.

Meanwhile chief financial officer Stephen Daintith, who joined the firm in 2017, saw his pay increase from £2.4m to £3.1m over the same period.

The huge increases come despite Rolls-Royce posting a pre-tax loss of £2.9bn in 2018, which was in part driven by issues with its Trent 1000 engines which power Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes.

Rolls-Royce has been forced to embark on a wide-ranging programme of repairs for the engine, which has left jets operated by BA, Virgin Atlantic, ANA and Norwegian Air grounded.

In the firm’s annual financial report, chairman Ian Davis wrote: “We have had setbacks, however, the most significant of which has been operational issues with our in-service fleet, particularly with our Trent 1000 engine.

“This has caused pain for us and even more importantly for many of our customers.”

East is in the midst of leading the firm through a major restructuring process, which included cutting 4,600 jobs in a bid to streamline in mid 2018.

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