US airlines gear up for holiday travel season and beyond

With leisure travel on the rise, the holiday season around the corner and international borders reopening, US airline executives say they’re ready to welcome more passengers back to the skies. “We expect a lot of passengers, tremendous pent-up demand and we’re going to be ready,” said American Airlines President Robert Isom. “We have focused hiring efforts to increase staffing at the airports to give us more resources, to handle those activities when our load factors increase over the holiday period,” said Southwest Airlines President Mike Van de Ven.