Features

LOS ANGELES — Airport traffic throughout California remained well below normal Monday as the nation tried to get back to business after last week’s terrorist attacks. 

Flights were expected to be about 70 percent of normal at San Francisco International and 60 percent of normal at Los Angeles and San Diego airports, where passengers arrived hours early for flights amid concerns over security delays. 

Investment banker Robert Hammer, 52, of Thousand Oaks arrived at the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport two hours early for a 9 a.m. flight to San Francisco. He found the terminal nearly empty. 

“I thought there would be no lines here, and I was right,” he said. 

At Los Angeles International Airport, all travelers with cars were required to park in remote lots and take shuttles to and from the terminals. 

Lines snaked out of sight at some San Francisco International ticket counters. 

“The biggest problem we’re having is people not taking small items, small knives, scissors, fingernail files, out of their carry-on bags,” Duty Manager Dennis Neves said. 

Officials at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field expected far fewer travelers than normal for weeks to come as businesses and vacationers assess the situation. 

“What I would guess is, people have been canceling their plans,” said Rita Vandergaw, spokeswoman for the San Diego Unified Port District, which manages the airport. 

An expected drop in air travel battered the stocks of major airlines, which have lost some $1 billion in the past week. 

The slide in airline and tourism-related stocks contributed to an early sell-off on Wall Street that had many — but not all — California investors nervous. 

Khajag Vosgueritchian, a Pasadena mortgage broker, was confident enough in the economy’s future that he was buying stock at a Charles Schwab office in Los Angeles. 

“I’m pretty optimistic. I’m buying today, and I’m thinking long-term,” said Vosgueritchian, who was focusing on big companies such as General Electric and Intel. 

Over the weekend, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta appointed two task forces of nongovernment experts to examine improving security aboard airliners and at airports. They are due to issue a report by Oct. 1. 

“Try to check everything at the ticket counter and not carry anything onto the airplanes,” Los Angeles World Airports spokesman Harold Johnson said. 

Waits for everything — from checking in to catching a shuttle bus — were long. Most seemed to take the delays in stride. 

Arun Gollaputi, 41, of Glendale arrived at the Burbank airport at 8:45 a.m. for a 10:45 a.m. Southwest Airlines flight to Oakland. 

His wife was in tears as she dropped him off, he said. Gollaputi said he told her: “We’ve got to show these bastards we’ve got to do business.” 

All of his baggage was searched thoroughly. Security personnel even asked permission to open a sealed legal-size envelope in his luggage. 

“I want them to check. This ensures they are checking everybody else,” he said. 

Some passengers admitted to concerns about flying. 

“People were looking around and everybody was nervous,” Caner Diniz, a 37-year-old Turkish businessman, said of his fellow passengers during the 45-minute flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. 

Others believed the worst was over. 

Doug Brown, 32, of Pasadena arrived from San Francisco at Burbank on a United flight about 8:30 a.m. 

“It was pretty smooth,” he said. 

His wife, Christina, 21, was waiting. 

“It’s already happened. They already did what they wanted to do. I don’t want to think about it too much. That would be over-worrying,” she said.