Stoic Travelers Calmly Endure Long LAX Lines

They expected some inconvenience and they got it, enduring serpentine lines and security searches.

But at Los Angeles International Airport, typically crowded the day before Christmas, travelers largely shrugged off jitters from Air France’s cancellation of six flights in and out of LAX for security reasons.

Neither the possibility of terrorism nor the buzz of police activity at the airport cowed Goran Sobacic, 20, who had been booked on one of Air France’s grounded flights from Los Angeles to Paris. The airport in Belgrade, Serbia, has even more security, he said.

“I’m not scared. I’m Serbian,” said Sobacic, who later caught a different Paris flight from Atlanta.

Noreen Moustafa, 23, stood in line at the Tom Bradley International Terminal with her boyfriend, Ben Ronne, 23, checking in for a British Airways flight to Paris.

Ronne was annoyed; his journey was turning out to be a gantlet of police and airport security. Moustafa was a little spooked.

“The fact that Paris was singled out is disturbing,” she said. She turned to Ronne.

“You’re not worried at all?”

He shook his head.

Moustafa said she had taken the same flight around the same date two years ago. This year the crowds appeared bigger, the lines longer.

“This is going to be a gross inconvenience,” Ronne said.

LAX spokesman Harold Johnson said the airport had stepped up security measures Wednesday, including a ban on curbside check-in like the one temporarily enforced after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Motorists were routed to the airport’s parking structures to unload travelers and luggage. Only buses and taxis could go directly to terminals.

At checkpoints at the airport’s entrances, police conducted spot searches of trunks and used long mirrors to look under vehicles, backing up traffic.

Though Johnson would not disclose the number of police and traffic officers on hand, police cruisers were parked in front of every LAX terminal. Bomb-sniffing dogs patrolled inside and outside.

“It was startling to see all the policemen,” said Cindy Mirabal, 34, waiting to pick up her godson at Terminal 1. “It was disheartening. I guess there were 20 policemen with their cars, all along the way I came.”

Passengers booked on the canceled Air France flights struggled to get information and make alternate plans that would get them to their destinations in time for Christmas.

Mary Delorme, 40, of Beverly Hills arrived at the airport about 9 a.m., desperate to find a way back to her native France for the holidays.

When she called to check on her reservation, an airline representative told her about the cancellation, but not the reason for it. Then relatives in Paris phoned to say the French prime minister was on television, talking about a terrorist threat.

Nonetheless, as she arranged to fly standby through Atlanta, Delorme sounded more annoyed than afraid.

“I’m not worried about terrorists,” she said. “I’m worried about spending all day at the airport.”

An estimated 153,000 passengers will have passed through LAX each day in the holiday rush between Dec. 19 and Jan. 4, airport officials said. That’s about 3% more than on an average day this year, airport officials said. Still, 153,000 is less than last year’s average of about 157,000 per day during the holidays.

Many who heeded warnings to arrive three to four hours before flights found that they had churned through the traffic and lines with hours to spare.

So, they did crossword puzzles and ate food they didn’t really want. They read forgettable paperback novels. One young boy, bored, rhythmically bopped himself in the head with an empty plastic water bottle.

Sonya Spurlock, 37, drove in from the Santa Clarita Valley to pick up her brother. His flight from Philadelphia ran late. She occupied her 7-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son by singing Christmas carols.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, travelers said, they have become used to the new obstacles in air travel.

They know the routine. They unwrap their holiday gifts in advance and take off their shoes at the screening station before they’re asked.

“I no longer travel with nail-trimming equipment or embroidery scissors,” said Bunny Stewart, 45, of Scottsdale, Ariz., as she waited in the Southwest line.

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Times staff writer Duke Helfand contributed to this report.