Reporter Tony Wall joins travellers to America to test the uneasy atmosphere.
"If everyone stops travelling, the bastards have won."
Meet Gold Coast television production company owner Ian Peters, aged 55, a passenger on an Air New Zealand ghost flight across the Pacific.
He is something of a rare commodity - a holidaymaker who is refusing to let terrorism hijack his dream trip to America.
He and his wife Irene, 64, have never before travelled outside Australia - and tonight they are winging their way to Los Angeles via Auckland on an Air New Zealand 747-400 - a flight that is more than three-quarters empty.
A month out from the attacks on New York and Washington, at the height of America's Anthrax scare and its global war on terrorism, there are just 89 passengers on a plane that can hold 390.
The silence is eerie. These flights are usually jam packed with tourists, families, screaming babies or sports teams.
Cattle class can be unbearable on the 12-hour flight, but tonight it is almost luxurious. Most passengers have a row to themselves, and when they lie down it looks as if there is no one on board. There are only two children in economy class.
Empty seats, nervous passengers, bored flight attendants - welcome to international air travel in the New World Order.
The Peters are two of the few tourists on this Sunday night flight.
Most passengers are on board out of necessity rather than choice, flying only because of important business appointments or family bereavements.
Not everyone is nervous, but most admit the haunting images of planes slicing through buildings and exploding in huge fireballs have crossed their minds at some point in the journey.
Threats of further hijackings have made flying unnerving for many.
The Weekend Herald joined the flight from Auckland to Los Angeles to sample what effects the events of the past five weeks have had on international air travel.
It soon became apparent that many New Zealanders have reconsidered the idea of flying, the link that has kept us connected to the rest of the world for generations.
It is not just Kiwis who are grounded - airlines around the world are suffering. United Airlines' chief executive James Goodwin has warned that the number two US carrier could go belly-up next year if it does not stem losses resulting from the terrorist attacks.
Air New Zealand, already haemorrhaging from its near-collapse, has cut several of its Sydney-Los Angeles and Auckland-Los Angeles services because of decreased demand.
It is not all doom and gloom. The return flight the Herald caught from Los Angeles to Auckland on Wednesday night was full, carrying groups of Americans venturing to parts of the globe they consider safest, as well as Kiwis coming home from tours that started before September 11 and those game enough to fly since.
Our outward journey began with a whimper on Sunday when we arrived at Auckland airport the prescribed four hours in advance, only to find the check-in counter closed. It did not open until two-and-a-half hours before the flight.
The first sign that security has been increased comes even before passengers reach the counter, when bags are searched by aviation security staff. Laptop computers have to be turned on to ensure they are not hollowed-out hiding-places for something sinister.
The Air New Zealand man at the counter says flight NZ2 to Los Angeles and London is less than a quarter full, perhaps because "everyone is too scared". He allocates us a row each.
Passengers make their way through customs and are again searched and x-rayed by aviation security staff and unarmed Navy personnel.
We head through the transit lounge towards our departure gate and are frisked once more by a security team.
A dishevelled, middle-aged British man has had enough, and launches into a tirade about how all this extra security is ridiculous. He's tired and grumpy, he says, and just wants to go home.
Mr and Mrs Peters say the extra security makes them feel safe. They started planning their first overseas foray - a six-week trip around the US - three years ago.
"After the attacks we talked about it and decided there was no guarantee they [the terrorists] wouldn't do something in Australia or New Zealand or anywhere else, so we said, 'Let's do it anyway'," says Mrs Peters, a school principal.
"If we all stop living our lives, we will suffer even more. You could just as easily slip over in the bath and break your neck."
Mrs Peters says she is always nervous about flying but fatalistic - "when you're number's up, it's up".
Passenger Debbie Graham runs an Auckland recruitment agency and is on her way to London to try to "reverse the brain-drain".
She says she has been on tenterhooks since the New York attacks. Her business associate told her three days before the flight that she could not get on the plane - she was too worried that Britain would be the next terrorist target and she would not ride on the tube.
Debbie Graham replaced her with another senior consultant, Darrell Stretch, whose son is a commercial pilot, and told her: "you're safer flying than driving to the airport, even in this climate".
But Debbie Graham still has her worries. "I have two children, aged 11 and 16 - I do wonder whether I should be going."
She had planned a week's holiday in Egypt, but cancelled because she considers the area "too close to the action". She also changed her flight route so she would travel over America rather than the Middle East.
Debbie Graham admits she will be watching the other passengers on the flight and, when she gets to Heathrow, she will not be loitering.
"All my friends said, 'Don't sit down and have lunch, just keep moving'."
She decided to go ahead with the trip because she had booked seminars and made a commitment to be there, and also because it was a perfect time to encourage Kiwis to come home.
Karen Macmiller-Smith and her husband, J. D. Smith, are returning home to Newport Beach, California, after three weeks' holidaying in Australia and New Zealand.
They say when they flew out of LA airport on September 25 it was like a ghost town. The couple felt it was the best time to fly because of increased security, and were determined to go ahead with their long-planned holiday.
The passengers move to their seats and the plane takes off into the night sky, the lights of Auckland glistening below. Ruth Irwin, 33, and her 9-year-old son Jamie are settling into their seats. She lives in Glasgow and is doing a PhD in philosophy in education. She returned to New Zealand before September 11 when her grandfather became ill.
"When the twin towers were bombed I seriously considered not going back [to Scotland]. Either not going back at all, or not for a month or two until it settled down.
"Then I thought, 'It's not going to settle down in the near future so either you live your life or you don't'."
Ruth Irwin says flying in the present world situation is nerve-racking.
"It's a bit of a calculated risk. It's certainly a higher risk now than it was, I feel. I'm pleased it's Air New Zealand because they [the terrorists] are targeting American airlines. It's not likely this plane will get diverted, but it's a worry."
The evening meal is served and plastic knives are issued as a security precaution. The noise of the plane's engines is about the only sound as the flight crosses the equator and the passengers start to fall asleep.
The flight crew - on strict instructions not to talk to the Herald - sit in empty passengers' seats, reading newspapers and watching the in-flight movies to stay awake.
Passenger Pietra Brettkelly, a freelance Auckland television director on her way to Las Vegas to make travel documentaries, is still getting over an emotional farewell.
"My friend started crying and said, 'You're going to the war zone'. She was only half-joking. It crossed my mind to go and get some anthrax antidotes and I may do that when I get to Vegas."
Ms Brettkelly has a fear of flying and found it hard to say goodbye to her family.
"I say hello and goodbye to my family all the time. When I said goodbye to my parents this time I was really emotional ... I don't think I'm going to die, but this is the closest we've come to being a part of a war in my generation."
The flight hits a patch of turbulence and the passengers awake startled, some buckling up. In the middle of the plane, Lorraine Catalano, an Australian, is thinking of her husband and is feeling "very apprehensive".
The manager of a spray company, she is heading to Oregon for an important business opportunity, but her husband and business partner, Jeremy Gregg, has decided to stay home in Australia where he feels safe. As an American, he feels vulnerable travelling overseas and is too nervous to return to his homeland.
Ms Catalano would prefer not to be here, but the trip was booked before September 11. "I wouldn't have come if I didn't have to. I wasn't too good getting on the flight - my family certainly wasn't happy."
But she is trying to look on the bright side - at least she can get to the toilet easily on such an empty flight.
Further back in the plane, three Croatian women are returning home after attending a world conference for deaf and blind people in Auckland.
Marijana Vukadin says it was important that they attend the conference to meet people from all over the world. They felt safe flying internationally because of the increased security at airports.
"If something happens I can't do much about it. "But I believe everything will be OK - I have hope," she says.
The plane touches down at Los Angeles airport and it only takes an hour to clear Customs, collect our baggage and move outside. Customs officers carry sidearms, but security is low-key and our bags are not searched or x-rayed.
We know it will be a different story when we come to leave.
Los Angeles has spent millions on security since the terrorist attacks, but life goes on pretty much as normal. Shaggy-headed surfer types can be spotted living it up at bars all over town, and the baseball playoffs are on big screens at most venues.
The only obvious sign here that America is at war is a great outpouring of patriotism. It seems every second car has the stars and stripes flapping from its roof. At a Santa Monica store, the millionth American flag sold in California since September 11 is unveiled. At the Santa Monica pier, hawkers sell "Wanted" T-shirts featuring Osama bin Laden, America's public enemy number one. Switch on the news channels and there is only one story worth covering - the anthrax scare.
A local controversy is the gun lobby's move to try to have Californians armed and ready - billboards have appeared around town saying,"Society is safer when criminals don't know who's armed".
Returning to LA Airport for the return flight to New Zealand, the increased security presence is much more noticeable. Only passengers are allowed inside the terminal and they have to present passports and boarding passes to get in. This has meant a big downturn in business for shopkeepers, some of whom have been forced to close or lay off staff.
At a search area, three soldiers armed with M16s and three armed police officers supervise the x-raying of passengers for sharp objects. Once past this area, it is straight into the departure lounge.
Unlike the ghost flight of three days before, this flight is fully booked. Passengers include the obligatory tour groups of middle-aged Americans on their first trip to "Noo Zeeland".
Leigh Ann Chrouch and Bill Holder, of Little Rock, Arkansas - Bill Clinton territory - are part of a large tour group heading to New Zealand and Australia, which they feel is the safest place to be in the world right now.
Their only concern is that depending on world developments, they might not be able to fly home when scheduled.
Glenys and Gerry Shallard, of Tauranga, are returning home from a seven-week tour of Canada and the US. They were in Canada when "all hell broke loose" on September 11, but decided to continue with their holiday.
Mrs Shallard says the attacks and the anthrax scares have given them a lot of added stress. "It's always on the news, you can't shut it out. You do realise that New Zealand is a hell of a long way away - you miss everyone."
Chad Evans, 16, of Wellington, and Travis Butler, 17, of Northland, are part of a 12-member New Zealand team that attended the world under-21 karate championships in Greece. Some of their parents weren't happy about them flying, but they had no concerns.
The flight back to New Zealand is almost normal - cattle-class conditions again.
The near-panic in parts of America, the bombing of Afghanistan - it all seems a long way off as we fly to what feels like the safest place on Earth - home.
