"Everybody in here plays a critical part. You have your vendors over here, your caterers, your fuelers, your line maintenance over here, these gentlemen watch the aircraft that come in and out and this desk here watches the whole operation."

On his screen he can see video of the plane at E18 finishing its preparations.

"We still have a couple of passengers boarding," he says with 25 minutes to go until departure. "Looks like everything is right on time."

Turning planes around quickly might be nice for passengers, but it also means profits for an airline.

"Our airplanes are our assets and so we need to utilize them as much as we possibly can," Buchanan says. "So the faster we can turn an airplane the sooner we can get it back in the air flying and earning revenue for us."

Back at the ramp, service agent Simi Kalasa is loading the last few individual bags into a compartment in the rear of the plane.

For him, the holidays mean more luggage to load.

"That would probably be the toughest part, because you get a larger volume of bags and you have got to work a little harder."

With one last minute bag loaded and the cargo doors shut it's time or takeoff, but one passenger hasn't made it.

Since this aircraft is an international flight, their bags can't go if they aren't on board.

The ground crew huddles and looks at their scanners to locate the bag packed away inside a can in the cargo hold.

As they open the doors to start to retrieve it they get good news; the passenger has shown up and the plane can leave.

A quick push back from the tug at the front of the aircraft and United flight 58 is on its way, back to Amsterdam.

Only a couple minutes later the next plane pulls into the gate and the process starts all over again.