Fliers' fear factor returns in 'a rotten time to travel' By Marilyn Adams, USA TODAY MIAMI =97 The offer seemed too good to resist: 10 days in Europe including= =20 four-star hotels and round-trip air, all for less than $1,000. But Kevin=20 Tracy, an Atlanta-based software salesman who once took 150 flights a year,= =20 turned down the tour without a second thought. Tracy, who was in the air=20 during the Sept. 11 attacks and was stranded for days away from home,=20 dreads getting stranded again if war with Iraq or another terrorist=20 incident erupts. "It's a great deal, but a rotten time to travel," Tracy=20 says. "Europe is not the right place to be when all hell breaks loose."=20 Fear of air travel is back. Just when passengers were growing numb to the=20 invasive security ordeal before every flight, the Iraq threat and the=20 government's "orange alert" have ratcheted up the fear level again. The=20 alert has brought out swarms of police, bomb-sniffing dogs, even soldiers=20 at some airports and train stations in the USA and abroad. Airlines already= =20 posting deep losses have seen February and March bookings sag on=20 international flights and have slashed fares to fill seats. The sudden security uptick 17 months after the terrorist attacks and five=20 months after the attacks' anniversary has travelers asking the=20 unanswerable: How long until the next alert? How long until most people can= =20 feel at ease again on a trip? "First it was the fear factor, then it was=20 the security hassle factor" that kept many air passengers home, says Terry= =20 Trippler, air traveler advocate with CheapSeats.com. "Then it was the=20 economy. Now we're back to the fear factor again." Travelers' nerves have=20 had little time to recover. Fear has been stoked by images of tanks at=20 London's Heathrow Airport, soldiers at New York's Grand Central Station and= =20 anti-aircraft missiles outside the Capitol in Washington. Already strict=20 security at major airports is beefed up. At Los Angeles this week,=20 motorcycle police are confronting motorists who tarry too long in the=20 pickup and drop-off zone next to terminals. At New York's LaGuardia,=20 passengers are being ordered to remove not only coats and laptops but also= =20 their shoes to be X-rayed. At Dallas/Fort Worth, "We are visually=20 inspecting every vehicle coming into the airport =97 35,000 a day," says=20 airport spokesman Ken Capps. Police are using mirrors to check under=20 vehicles for explosives. Police at many airports nationwide are searching=20 some or all incoming vehicles, and small airports aren't exempt. Travelers= =20 driving to sleepy Key West Airport in Florida are being stopped so their=20 trunks can be opened and sniffed by police dogs. Vans carrying airline=20 crews to flights at Savannah, Ga., are being stopped outside the airport so= =20 occupants' credentials can be checked. "Where they used to check crew IDs once, now they are checking a couple=20 times to make sure it's the right person, the right number of crew," says=20 AirTran Airways spokesman Tad Hutcheson. "People are a little bit more on=20 edge." Designed to ward off potential terrorists, the stepped-up security=20 measures at airports and elsewhere are scaring some passengers, too.=20 Earlier this week, Herb Pereira waited at Miami International with his wife= =20 and baby son in a seemingly endless security line, worried less about the=20 blizzard awaiting them in New York than invisible dangers. "People are=20 afraid," said Pereira, a Brooklyn lawyer who was visiting relatives. "My=20 sister was dropping me off at the airport today, saying that since the=20 orange alert and the (Osama) bin Laden video last week, she's afraid to=20 fly. When I get home, I'm getting my duct tape and stocking up on food and= =20 water. We live in scary times." Fear is keeping some travelers home now.=20 Although airlines don't release their booking numbers, Wall Street airline= =20 analysts say virtually all airlines with trans-Atlantic routes are=20 reporting soft international-trip bookings this month and throughout March.= =20 "Certain carriers have already begun to pre-cancel poorly performing=20 flights," says J.P. Morgan analyst Jamie Baker. In a new survey of 400=20 corporate travel managers, 82% said their companies would reduce or stop=20 international travel in case of a war or terror attack, and 35% said=20 domestic flying would be reduced, too. The study by the Association of=20 Corporate Travel Executives found that caution is taking a toll: 32% of the= =20 managers said their companies have reduced overseas travel because of the=20 fear of war with Iraq. Calming worried minds Airlines know that some passengers fret about all kinds of things. To help= =20 calm jitters, Delta Air Lines is offering a passenger relaxation tape=20 called E-Z-Flight on one in-flight entertainment channel on long flights.=20 The airline began offering the "stress-relieving channel" last year.=20 Developed by a mental health therapist who's married to a Delta pilot, the= =20 40-minute relaxation program exhorts passengers to breathe deeply, and=20 imagine a beach. Sounds of lapping ocean waves set the mood. "Many responses I'm getting are from frequent-flier businessmen saying=20 'Where can I order this?' " says creator Ruth Cann, whose e-mail address is= =20 on the tape. "By the time people get to their seats, they are so caught up= =20 in what they just went through." Behavior experts say the orange terrorism= =20 alert has been particularly scary to some travelers because they don't know= =20 how to react. "Typically you relieve anxiety through knowledge," says=20 trauma psychologist Robert Butterworth of Los Angeles. "In this case,=20 people don't know what to do. I also worry about the desensitization=20 factor, about people saying after awhile, 'Big deal, another alert.' " Some frequent travelers wonder how airport security could get any more=20 draconian. Florida-based sales trainer Glenna Ballard, who travels two to=20 three weeks a month, was privately amused when the orange alert was issued.= =20 "What else are they going to do =97 full body searches on everyone?" she=20 says. But some of the sales trainees in a class she was conducting became=20 spooked when the alert was issued during their seminar. "Some of them don't= =20 fly much and decided not to fly home," she says. Those who travel a lot find they are also facing more questions from people= =20 worried about them. "My family and friends keep asking if I can find a way= =20 to get off the road," says Washington-based consultant Anne Seymour, an=20 advocate for crime victims' rights who travels 50% of the time. Seymour,=20 who was stranded in Detroit after the Sept. 11 attacks, says she's taking=20 new precautions. She now pre-programs rental-car reservation numbers into=20 her cell phone and leaves a detailed itinerary with friends and co-workers= =20 when she travels. She's also re-thinking a trip to Britain in May. "My=20 girlfriends and I have tickets to Bruce Springsteen in London over Memorial= =20 Day," she says. "We had a long talk on the phone the other day and decided= =20 that if things are still on high alert, we're not going." As it did during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, international travel seems to=20 be taking the biggest hit from today's fears. Jim Corbett, a high school=20 European history teacher in Mission Viejo, Calif., is pressing ahead with=20 plans to take 40 graduating seniors on a European trip this summer, as he=20 has for 10 years. "The vast majority will go," he says. "I'm on the fence,"= =20 says Susan Wystrach, whose 17-year-old son, Carter, is signed up to go. She= =20 worries about the group visiting clubs in the evenings. Terrorists "target= =20 clubs with young people," she says. "My son would like to go, but at the=20 same time he doesn't want to go to a war zone." Some not scared Still, many travelers haven't been scared off by the terror talk. Some=20 simply must fly for their jobs. They don't admit fear or let it slow them=20 down. A day after the tanks showed up at Heathrow, Jim Mock of Phoenix, for= =20 example, went ahead with plans to fly to London on business. "Some of my=20 associates expressed concern," says Mock, whose company distributes=20 hydraulic equipment in the USA and abroad. "My attitude is that terrorism=20 is intended to instill fear, and we can't allow that. At Heathrow, I=20 thought I'd see soldiers and tanks, but I didn't see anything. My cab=20 driver told me they were still there, just out of sight." Mock even took=20 his distinctly American cowboy hat along on the trip and wore it in public.= =20 "I got some funny looks. When I went to one pub, they took my picture."=20 Butterworth, the trauma expert, says some people feel the need to stare=20 down fear. "You've got to have a little denial, or you'd never go=20 anywhere," he says. "You're playing the odds." 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