Originally Posted by
tucsnaz
Yes, AA is still in bankruptcy, but US has been there twice with DUI Dougie. AA also has a pile of cash on hand that said CEO really would like to get his hands on. US has limited options without AA.
For the record, AA is still in bankruptcy because of the merger. The bankruptcy judge approved the POR a while back, contingent on the outcome of the DOJ suit. I have absolutely no doubt that with no merger AA would have emerged from bankruptcy no later than August and probably earlier. Remember, the pending merger caused several things that delayed the process - rewriting the POR from the originally planned stand alone exit, shareholder approval requiring scheduling and holding shareholder votes at both companies, regulatory approval on both sides of the Atlantic and the DOJ suit. The result of all those - probably Feb or later before the judge rules.
Also for the record, Parker hasn't run an airline that declared bankruptcy yet. The AWA bankruptcy was long over a decade before Parker became CEO - I'm not sure that he was even at AWA when it filed for bankruptcy in 1990. The two US bankruptcies were before the merger was even announced. I guess it could be argued that Parker had some influence on decisions made at US in the months before the merger officially occured, but antitrust laws limited how much he could do.
AA does have a lot of cash - $7+ billion at the end of the 3rd quarter. Of course, it also has debt commensurate with that cash. But as the saying goes, if you owe the bank $100,000 and are behind in payments you're in trouble but if you owe them billions they're in trouble.
Jim