Terror and recession slam industry's brakes.

• Position: Transportation

More than the World Trade Center towers collapsed Sept. 11. So did passenger boardings at North Carolina's biggest airports. By the end of the month, they had dropped 56% at Charlotte, 56% at Greensboro and 49% at Raleigh-Durham.

Until then, Charlotte's overall numbers showed no obvious effects from the recession and softening demand for high-margin business travel. Through September, boardings there were up 2.1% for the year.

But Jerry Orr, aviation director at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, says the airport lost $1 million in October and another $1 million in November. The losses prompted the airport to put on hold about $200 million in expansion projects -- a fourth runway, a parking deck and several road projects. In December, Charlotte/Douglas had 532 daily flights, only three fewer than a year ago. But it had lost US Airways flights to Paris and Germany, the airport's only direct flights to those countries.

Orr also was watching nervously as Virginia-based US Airways, which has a hub at his airport and carries 93% of its passengers, continued to grapple with financial woes. The airline had tried to merge with United Airlines, based in Chicago But the $11.6 billion deal broke down in July after federal regulators said they would sue over antitrust concerns. In October, US Airways reported a third-quarter loss of $766 million. In December, it had plans to cut 1,600 jobs in Charlotte.

Misery loves company, and US Airways had plenty. Many of the nation's airlines were struggling, even before Sept. 11. Morrisville-based Midway Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August and ceased operations Sept. 12. It returned to the air Dec. 19, bolstered by $12.5 million in federal bailout money. But it had scaled back its operations to six destinations and about 250 employees, compared with 28 destinations and 2,400 employees in July.

Midway had been hurt by Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, which increased its market share at Raleigh-Durham International Airport from 10.3% in 2000 to 12.9% by the end of the third quarter of 2001. Midway also suffered because its target market was recession-hobbled business travel. Midway's absence was among the reasons that passenger traffic was off about 3.4% through October at RDU, spokeswoman Mirinda Kossoff says. In early December, the airport was down to about 400 daily flights, two-thirds of what it had the year before.

Kossoff said RDU would finish ongoing expansion projects, such...