US: Airlines gear up for high holiday travel volume

It's beginning to look a lot like the holiday travel season! And, after record-breaking Thanksgiving travel, the airlines are expecting big numbers of travelers this year. American Airlines is expecting a haul this holiday season that would daunt Santa himself - nearly 2m passengers from Dec. 20 to Jan. 8, which they've defined as the peak holiday travel period. AA's Senior Vice President Jim Moses said preparations have been underway for most of the year, starting with new hires. "And that our team members, either on board aircraft on the ground, folks that look after our aircraft, our tech ops team, our customer service agents, our fleet service agents, really all of the team members we have been hiring really throughout the year to make sure we are staffed and ready to go this holiday period." He also said they've invested in new technology. "We also have technology that we use in some key areas to ensure that we are managing our operation really to the best of our ability and doing it better than any of our competitors."<br/>