American Airlines vows to take steps against racial bias

DALLAS (AP) - Under pressure from the NAACP, American Airlines is promising changes in the way it trains employees and handles passenger complaints about racially biased treatment.

The airline announced the steps Thursday after a meeting between CEO Doug Parker and NAACP President Derrick Johnson.

The civil-rights group issued a "travel advisory" in October warning African-Americans they could face discrimination when flying on American. The alert followed several high-profile incidents including one involving an organizer of the Women's March who was booted from a flight after a dispute over her seat.

American pledged to hire an outside firm to review its diversity in hiring and promotion, train all 120,000 employees to counteract so-called implicit bias, create a special team to review passengers' discrimination complaints, and improve resolution of employee complaints about bias.