Tony Fessler expected long delays to clear security at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and arrived four hours early for a flight to Beijing.
The precaution was unnecessary. Because so many other travelers are unwilling to fly, Fessler, his wife and daughter spent little time waiting.
"It seems to be a lot better than I expected," he said.
Airport security in the US and overseas intensified after last week's terrorist attacks. Guards sifted through suitcases at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport. Police officers patrolled entrances at Lehigh Valley Airport International Airport near Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Mercer County Airport in Trenton, New Jersey. Travelers at Portland, Maine, handed over nail clippers, tweezers and razors before boarding planes.
Many passengers said the added security checks took less time than they anticipated because airport crowds were so thin.
Terry Gillott said his American Airlines flight from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was only half full. Normally, it's packed, he said.
"I got to the airport two hours early and went right through," said Gillott, a salesman. "I was surprised how empty the place was."
The long lines of last week at Philadelphia International Airport also have disappeared.
"For the first couple of days there were a lot more lines" after curbside check-ins were canceled for security reason, said Curtis Carter, a skycap who works in the US Airways departures area.
One reason for the reduced crowds is that most major airlines, after an unprecedented shutdown by the US government last week, still aren't back to full service. AMR Corp.'s American Airlines, for example, said it flew about 65 percent of its normal schedule on Sunday. Some airlines said they wouldn't resume all routes.
Betty Dabney runs the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau tourist information booth at Hartsfield. She says business has slowed to a trickle.
"I've counted only 14 people who have come to the desk today," she said. "Normally, it's about 75 to 80 people."
John Dickman, who works for software maker PeopleSoft Inc, said his laptop computer bag was checked for residue from explosives when he boarded a jet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a flight to Atlanta this morning.
"They've never done that to me before," he said.
In Portland, Maine, police officers greeted fliers as they arrived at the airport and steered them towards lines for the X- ray machines.
"They were taking away tweezers and razors and nail scissors," said Lou Sesto, who work for a medical technology company in Maine and flew to Atlanta yesterday.
At the Lehigh Valley International Airport, near Allentown, Pennsylvania, cars parked within 300 feet of the terminal entrance were towed.
Passengers passed two armed county sheriff's officers before entering Mercer County Airport in Trenton, New Jersey.
A police tow truck and a utility truck pulling an armored bomb-disposal trailer were parked outside one terminal in Philadelphia.
Passengers also were also delayed at Boston's Logan International Airport after more than 500 people were asked to evacuate Terminal B when a security guard at an X-ray machines thought she spotted a knife in a carry-on computer case. The case was grabbed by its owner, who disappeared into the crowd. The police cleared the entire check-in area at Gates 26 to 37. Passengers who had already passed through security were forced back outside, said Massport spokesman Phil Orlandella.
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