American Airlines (AA) chairman, president and CEO Tom Horton pushed back against US Airways’ (US) efforts to bring about a merger of the two carriers, telling employees in a Monday letter that “we must be mindful of other parties who don’t have our best interests at heart.”
Horton emphasized that an agreement reached last week between US and AA’s three largest unions to pursue a merger“in no way alter[s] our course” in terms of restructuring via the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. “Nothing changes as a result of these announcements and we will proceed on our path toward a successful restructuring of American,” he told AA workers.
Addressing the US/AA unions deal specifically, he said, “It’s easy to understand US Airways’ sense of urgency to find a way to address the challenges it has faced for a long time. That story is well known.”
He added that “what’s best for our company, our people and our financial stakeholders will be determined by the facts in a disciplined manner and process. And this includes whether American will choose to pursue any combination down the road. This is the charge of the board of directors.”
Horton cautioned AA employees to be wary of quick fixes, noting that “there is no easy path back to renewal and growth and industry leadership. It will require difficult choices.” He said AA needs to be mindful of third parties “working their own agendas at our expense.”
He argued that AA is “making significant progress” in the Chapter 11 process, and noted that the court has granted AA the “exclusive right to pursue our plan of reorganization at least through the end of September and this may be extended further. We will continue to follow the prescribed court supervised restructuring process.”
Article Source : ATW Daily News
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