Cost up, flights down.

It used to be so easy. Park your car within yards of the terminal, race through security, onto the plane and off.

A year ago there were a stunning 34 daily departures out of LAX to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, eight offered by United Airlines alone.

These days, it's a world of waits and searches - seemingly capricious, always unpredictable. Get to the airport too early and passengers might find themselves twiddling their thumbs for an hour or more. Cut it closer and they could find themselves at the end of an impossibly long line as their plane is about to leave.

Then there's always the chance of a security breach that requires an evacuation of airport terminals.

In the days after Sept. 11, there were fears that travel would never be the same - and that business travelers, who purchase about half of all airline tickets, would sacrifice person-to-person meetings for the safety of the home office.

That hasn't happened. Travel has slowly inched up in the last 11 months. Briefcases and cell phones are again familiar sites at the terminals of Los Angeles International Airport.

But it's really not the same. For the first six months of 2002, the number of passengers at LAX was 27.2 million, off 16.5 percent from the same period in the year earlier. It's still a relative snap to get from LAX to JFK each day, but the number of daily flights has dropped from 34 to 23 (after falling to 15 in November 2001).

"I used to travel more and now I avoid it if I can," said Roberta Turner, a partner with L.A. accounting firm Turner & Adams, who used to fly on business at least five times annually but has yet to do so since Sept. 11. "(Business travel) still has a negative connotation. Anything and everything they do as a security precaution I agree with. But since it takes so much time out of your workday, it becomes a more onerous task to travel for business purchases than it did in the past. There are only so many hours in the day."

Overall, airline capacity has reached 77 percent, from 70 percent a year ago, but that has more to do with the reduction in flights than the increased amount of traffic.

Daily departures from LAX fell 18.7 percent last month from the year-earlier period, to 727. Additionally, 12 of LAX's 93 carriers stopped service at the airport since last year, including Shuttle by United and TWA (bought out by American Airlines).

Fare matters

"The business traveler is considerably inconvenienced," said Jack Keady, a Playa del Rey-based independent aviation consultant. "What was once an almost cursory process has become an ordeal. It adds to the total time of the trip which in turn leaves some businesspeople (wanting) to make fewer trips."

And for business travelers especially, it's not cheap: An unrestricted coach seat on United's LAX--JFK flights goes for as much as $2,426, compared to $2,298 a year ago, according to Montrose Travel. A first-class ticket is $4,638, compared with $4,267 a year ago.

Last year's recession and ensuing sluggish recovery has put the squeeze on corporate travel budgets -- so much so that an American Express survey of 40 corporate travel directors found more reliance on advance purchase fares, low-fare carriers and cheaper, alternative airports. Two-thirds of those polled have formal travel policies to encourage employees to book nonrefundable fares when possible.

"A number of airlines have tried to raise fares six different times since Jan. 1, 2002 and have had to rescind each potential fare hike because not all carriers followed," said Joe McClure, owner of Montrose Travel. "It all comes down to price elasticity of demand. The airlines are petrified that a minor increase in airfares will result in a major decrease in demand. But they are hemorrhaging cash. They only way to regain profitability is to raise fares."

Getting most of the attention is not fares but security. On July 27, 150 flights at LAX were delayed after a ticket holder bypassed a checkpoint and disappeared from sight.

Security is not quite as stringent as during the latter part of 2001 when fliers had to park in off-site lots and take a shuttle bus to the airport -- a process that added at least an hour to the pre-boarding time.

But passengers still have their nail files, tweezers and disposable razor blades confiscated, and have their shoes checked for hidden explosives or sharp devices. Not all of LAX's nine terminals have the same number of X-ray machines and other security apparatus, leaving some passengers with a longer wait.

Security delays

All this leaves officials at Los Angeles World Airports, which owns LAX, reluctant to post specific arrival times, making it difficult for time-conscious business travelers.

"What's true for one terminal might not be true for another terminal at any given time," said Paul Haney, deputy executive director of public and community relations for LAWA. "So we can't give a general rule because if we do, somebody will have too much time to kill and somebody will miss their flight."

On average, ticketed passengers who last fall and winter were encouraged to arrive at airports two and three hours before their domestic and international flights, still have curb-to-gate windows of 45 minutes and up, said Keady.

"It takes longer because the screening process is more intense," he said of pre-Sept. 11, "and not all airlines have been suitably expanded to keep the wait down."

Delays might increase later this year when LAX is mandated to hire additional security personnel at screening checkpoints. Congress has ordered that checked bags at all U.S. airports must be screened with specialized, explosive-sensing scanners by Dec. 31. While the deadline is unlikely to be met, transportation officials anticipate the pressure points to intensify from airlines, passengers and the regulatory agencies.

In the midst of these challenges, the airlines have been looking to expedite the process.

United Airlines, still LAX's largest carrier despite a drop in daily departures to 113 in July 2002 from 186 a year ago, recently became the first airline to install "priority checkpoint lines" to reduce the wait for full-fare business travelers and other frequent airline users. Other airlines have since followed suit.

Last week, American Airlines unveiled its new $300 million facility in Terminal 4 - the largest-ever single-carrier project at LAX. Though the airport's No. 2 carrier reduced daily departures to 101 from 121 a year ago, it increased its ticket counter positions, added security check-in stations and doubled its baggage claim capacity.

To a large degree, airlines are at the mercy of the Transportation Security Administration, which now oversees all airport security.

While airline officials all stressed that safety is the top priority, they acknowledged feeling handcuffed as it relates to serving the business traveler. "The thing that people have to understand is that we're operating a completely different system than we were prior to Sept. 11," said Chris Brathwaite, a spokesman for United Airlines. "This time last year a priority checkpoint wasn't necessary. (But) security is one thing we won't compromise. We have to work within the constraints of the federal government where it comes to the directives they forward."