Carl,
Bethune was hired as an advisor to Pardus management....a hedge fund (currently frozen) that has large investments in DAL and UAL. He (Bethune) was trying to get all of merger stuff moving last fall. Check "The Google" and I'm sure you'll find your answer.
I met Bethune several times at a previous carrier and if you ever get time read his book, "From Worst to First." Its basically the story of how he and Greg Brenneman (his #2 at the time...Kellner was #3 at best) turned CAL around. Bethune is a non-nonsense guy, but he's not a genius. What he is great at, however, is inspiring and motivating people...he gets the airline business and knows how to get out there and rally the troops. During the late 90s he was basically a rock star at CAL. He got people so excited about the $75 on-time bonus they might get in their paychecks, and made people so excited to work there, they'd forget they had industry lagging pay and benefits. He was also able to leverage his Boeing connections to modernize CAL's then-aging fleet. He did a great job....but he's no genius...when he got to CAL the bar was set so low, nobody could find it. When Gordon took over, they had 10 CEOs in 10 years...one even committed suicide. Anyway...just a little perspective.
I bet if some smart, motivated airline-oriented people got to take the reigns at UAL, things would drastically improve there. Hopefully its not too late.
Anyway...I've derailed this thread enough. But Bethune definitely works for Pardus, and he also worked for Delta for a bit a couple years ago as an advisor to Grinstein. He was back there hitting on a couple of our flight attendants.
These guys get around.