ALITALIA FLIGHT FIRST INTO LAX AIR TRAVEL NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE.

The call had come from Alitalia Airlines every two hours since Tuesday: ``We'll let you know in an hour when your flight will take off.''

Two days later, Amalia Donham, stranded in Calgary, Canada, en route to Los Angeles from Milan, Italy, got her final call to board - at 1 a.m. Nearly 12 hours later, she was among the first passengers to land at Los Angeles International Airport since terrorists disrupted American air travel early this week.

Flying, passengers said Thursday, just ain't what it used to be.

``I am glad to be back, definitely,'' said Donham, of Santa Barbara, her 9-year-old daughter in tow after two days in a lackluster hotel paid for by Alitalia. ``Hey, I can't complain. I could have been one of those people on the (hijacked) flights.''

Donham and hundreds of other passengers were forced to struggle with nationally imposed security measures Thursday as America revved up air travel for the first time since flights were grounded Tuesday.

What had once been a bustling LAX was a ghost town Thursday morning as passengers from Donham's flight boarded a shuttle to Parking Lot B miles from the terminal.

There were no greeters. No skycaps. No convenience parking. No rent-a- carts. No easy-to-read signs for arrival and departure terminals.

For passengers on the two incoming and 100 scheduled outbound flights Thursday, there was only confusion - and mass relief. It was just a percentage of the 2,200 flights that normally go in and out of LAX daily, but for those waiting, anything was welcome.

``I just want to get home,'' said waiting passenger Carol McCoy, 53, of Long Island, N.Y., who was supposed to leave Los Angeles the day terrorists killed one of her friends in the World Trade Center blasts.

``I'm not concerned about flying,'' she said. ``I'm concerned about being on the ground, to be honest with you. I'm concerned about Penn Station - that's the next (terrorist) stop.''

To get to the airport, passengers were forced to gather on the two hot staging areas at Parking Lots B and C miles from the airport. Then, with tickets or confirmations in hand, passengers could take a shuttle in for scheduled flights that may or may not even have taken off.

For those who had waited days to take to the skies, it was worth the wait - and the risk.

``This is a major hassle,'' said Ivana Sheppard of Tampa, stranded in Los Angeles during her honeymoon with her husband Chris, who called their airline 20 times for news of their departure.

``We don't know what's going on ... (but) there are worse places to be stuck than L.A.''

Not everyone was so serene.

``I might be stuck in L.A. two more days,'' one man barked into his cell phone, his bags by his feet. ``They have us sitting in a stinking (parking) lot until they get everybody's flight confirmed.''

``As the prop turns,'' mumbled another dazed and confused traveler.

Barbara, a 51 year-old women (who declined to give her last name) with six children en route to Honolulu, like many passengers Thursday took the hours-long waits in stride.

``It's a little confusing,'' she said. ``(But) after what everybody has gone through, I don't think anything's a hassle.''

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With virtually no instructions or explanations available, passengers in Parking Lot C at LAX await word on Thursday that they can proceed to the terminals to board their flights.

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer