As Scott Kirby prepares to take over as United CEO, many are praising the airline's leadership transition. Kirby, who has been heavily involved in growing United's route network, is being described as unusually intelligent and knowledgeable, "the best network man in the industry," detail oriented, a "shrewd negotiator" and one of "the top airline minds in the United States."

American Airlines' new premium menu items features spinach and ricotta rotolo pasta with pomodoro sauce, grilled artichoke with black truffle and fontina fonduta and mushroom bolognese. The dishes will be available in premium cabins on transcontinental flights between JFK to Los Angeles and San Francisco.

During the peak holiday, UPS processes an average of 2 million packages daily at its 5.2-million-square-foot Worldport facility in Louisville, Ky. A detailed look at how Worldport handles the rush includes more statistics and a gallery of photos.

The Transportation Security Administration screened a record-breaking 26 million passengers and crew members between Nov. 22 and Dec. 2, as well as 16 million checked bags. The Sunday after Thanksgiving was the single busiest travel day in the history of the agency, which reports that 99.8% of passengers waited less than 30 minutes in security lines.

The Department of Transportation is looking to update the federal service animal rules in an effort to address the surge in the number of emotional support animals showing up at airports. The airline industry and veterans groups are among those advocating for the proper definition of service animals in order to limit untrained emotional support animals from causing disruption on planes.