Bush on travel: No nightmare for Christmas

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- To keep the holiday travel season from becoming "The Nightmare Before Christmas," U.S. President George Bush Bush opened military airspace to civilian flights.

In remarks Tuesday before U.S. Transportation Department employees, Bush said it's the government's job to make travel in the United States "as comfortable an experience as possible."

"I know that a lot of folks in our country think about transportation a lot, particularly this time of the year. … One way to look at it is they're saying, will traveling home for the holidays be 'It's a Wonderful Life' or will it be 'The Nightmare Before Christmas,'" Bush said.

To keep the nightmare at bay, Bush announced the "Thanksgiving Express Lanes," opening military airspace to civilian flights along the East Coast, parts of the Midwest, the Southwest and the West Coast.

"In other words, we innovated last year to ease the travel; it worked, and now we're expanding that innovation this year," Bush said. "We're also working with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), the TSA (Transportation Security Administration), and the airlines to make more staff available to speed check-in and boarding, and to help passengers affected by cancellations and delays."

In addition, new consumer protections will be adopted to require greater compensation for lost bags and tougher penalties for airlines that fail to tell travelers of hidden fees.