Security tight for holiday travelers

LOS ANGELES - Christmas Day security was tight at the nation's airports in light of Wednesday's cancellation of six Air France flights because of evidence that terrorists might use them in an attack.

Los Angeles International Airport, which handles 150,000 passengers daily during the holidays, remained under its strictest guard since two months after the Sept. 11 attacks. Private cars were barred from picking up or dropping off passengers at the curb.

Many at the Los Angeles airport remained focused on their travels.

"All I care about is getting home," Goran Sobaca said at the airport. The 20-year-old student was heading to Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro, to celebrate Christmas with his family but his Air France flight to Paris was canceled. He arranged to reach Paris via Atlanta.

Jaime Anselen, a 79-year-old neuropsychologist from Malibu, said he had to cancel his vacation to Madrid because the alternate flight Air France offered him wouldn't have allowed much time to change planes in Paris.

"They ruined my vacation," Anselen said as he waited for a shuttle back to his car. "I have to cancel because I'm too old to be running through an airport. What kind of vacation is that?"

Still, Anselen said he understood the security concerns.

"I don't blame them," he said.

The airport, one of the busiest in the world, has twice been targeted for attacks in recent years - a foiled bomb plot planned for around New Year's Day 2000, and a shooting at a check-in counter that left three people dead on the Fourth of July last year.

Security around the nation has tightened since President Bush on Sunday raised the national terror alert to orange, its second-highest level.

Kendall Haynesworth, 29, flying out of Boston's Logan Airport, said the tighter security made her feel safer.

"I feel the U.S. is paying attention. I also think it makes the terrorists think twice," she said.

While not terrorism-related, Delta Air Lines canceled or delayed more than 30 flights Christmas Day, many of them out of Atlanta, because flight attendants did not show up for work.

The canceled and delayed flights involved runs to several major destinations, including Chicago, Charlotte, Orlando, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Mexico City and San Juan, but not Tampa.

Delta personnel at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport scrambled all day to find alternate flights, including seats on other airlines, to move the inconvenienced passengers.

"Right now the flights are moving and we feel that the flight attendant situation is manageable," Delta spokesman Joshua Smith said at midday. Smith offered no explanation for why so many flight attendants called in sick, but suggested it might be flu-related.

No other airlines, though, canceled a significant number of flights.

Security also was tightened away from airports.

The U.S. Coast Guard has upped its surveillance to 24 hours a day at ports such as San Francisco, where foreign merchant ships dock daily.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Tom Marshall said 28 helicopters and planes were flying patrols over electrical grids, aqueducts, major bridges, power plants and state buildings.

- Information from Cox News Service was used in this report.

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