Terry Maxon with the Dallas Morning News is reporting on the Aviation Blog there that the solid rumour is that Tom Horton will be non-executive Chairman and Doug Parker will be CEO of a merged US Airways and American Airlines.

Since Terry rarely gets things wrong, I believe that this is the almost certain outcome.

It’s likely that I will take flak for this but I don’t like it as an idea. Tom Horton as non-executive chairman would have seemed like a good compromise last May or even last July. Not now.

Horton & Company have clung too hard to their ideas and I fear that even as non-executive Chairman, he’ll wield too much influence if only by being able to second guess Doug Parker and his team.

Let’s not forget that, according to Horton, Tom Horton was the guy to think of a merger long before Parker.

And then there is the branding fiasco and multiple superfluous announcements about change, often scheduled to take place in 2017 or later.

Sorry but I think Horton interferes and prevents success more than he helps. And the Board of Directors as well as the unsecured creditors would be wise to find another non-executive Chairman before letting this happen. Ask Gordon Bethune to do it. Ask Doug Steenland to do it. Ask someone else.

In fact, I think that finding someone else to serve as non-executive chairman could be the very best thing for this company. I really do. But Tom Horton should not be the one to serve in that role. He’s a lightening bolt for controversy among employees and a potential critic of Doug Parker as he sets off to do something very, very hard in the best of circumstances.

Let me point out that if it is about wanting to reward Horton for something, there is nothing preventing the company from awarding him stock and/or options in this deal. Nothing really. Horton will work again, too. He is a very, very talented finance guy and there are companies who need his skills.

It will be much cheaper to bribe him away from this than it will be to have him hovering over Doug Parker and trying to wait in the wings hoping Parker will fail and he can take control again. Seriously, don’t do this. It hurts the chances of the merged company and at best it doesn’t help.

Filed under: Airline News, Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax