Leadership of American-US Airways to be named soon
American Airlines and US Airways expect to announce senior executives within next few weeks
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- American Airlines and US Airways expect to announce the senior executives of their combined company within a few weeks.
CEOs of the airlines said Monday that an announcement could be coming in late May or early June.
The companies announced in February that they planned to merge and create the world's biggest airline. They expect the deal to close before the end of September if U.S. antitrust regulators approve it first.
US Airways Group Inc. CEO Doug Parker will run the new carrier, which will keep the American Airlines name and headquarters in Fort Worth. Tom Horton, the CEO of American parent AMR Corp., will serve as chairman for a few months and then leave.
In a message to employees of both airlines Monday, the CEOs said that executives reporting directly to Parker will be named by early June with the rest of officers to follow.
Parker has a group of senior executives that has remained largely intact in recent years. Parker and Horton told employees that they went into the job of picking executives "confident that we have tremendous people at each airline and will only be stronger together when we make the right leadership selections."
The CEOs said representatives of both airlines will hold a "planning summit" in the Dallas-Fort Worth area this week to focus on "the most pressing work," including how the merger is presented to customers. It could be another 18 months or longer before the companies operate as a single airline with a merged fleet and workforce.
