Judge Tells Outgoing American Airlines CEO He’s Not Getting $20 Million Payout

A couple weeks back, the federal bankruptcy judge overseeing American Airlines’ attempts to get back to profitability approved the carrier’s merger with US Airways but held off on giving approval to a proposed $19.9 million payout to American CEO Tim Horton, who will be out of a job if the merger goes through. Last night, the judge finally got around to ruling on that matter, and it was probably a sad evening in the Horton house.
American’s bankruptcy trustee had originally expressed concern about the sizable payout in mid-March, saying that under bankruptcy law, severance packages can not be handed out “without factual and circumstantial justification,” and questioning whether Horton, who had only been in the CEO gig since Nov. 2011 really merited such a shiny, golden parachute.

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