Scare Takes Toll on Area Mail, Travel Business : Unabomber: Agents field calls from concerned air travelers while postal officials warn of a one-day delay in letter delivery.

The latest Unabomber scare has slowed mail service, unsettled and inconvenienced local air travelers and infuriated Ventura County travel agents.

“It’s been bad for business,” Mary Delgado of Tapo Travel in Simi Valley said Wednesday, a day after a San Francisco newspaper received a letter from the Unabomber promising to blow up a commercial airliner at Los Angeles International Airport during the Fourth of July holiday week.

Delgado said she received several telephone calls from concerned clients Wednesday. One man asked for a refund on his ticket, she said.

“He decided to change his plans and go to New York later,” she said.

The two airlines based at the Oxnard Airport announced Wednesday they will waive fees they typically charge passengers who want to change their tickets to accommodate those who want to avoid traveling during the next six days.

Furthermore, American Eagle and United Express officials said to expect delays at the airport while checking in.

Passengers will be asked to show picture identification that matches the names on the luggage, and carry-on luggage may be searched. The airlines are asking that passengers arrive at the airport two hours before their flights because of the expected delays.

“The wife and I are getting a bit hinky,” said Dick Distin, manager of Eastman Travel in Ventura. He and his wife, who are scheduled to fly out of LAX on Saturday for Portland, plan to make the trip despite the threat.

Oxnard Airport Manager John Dodd said the airport has already “heightened its security after certain world events and we haven’t come down from that.” No measures will be taken at the Oxnard Airport besides the two airlines’ actions, Dodd said.

Meanwhile, Amtrak and Greyhound officials said Wednesday was a normal day at their Ventura County stops.

“It is kind of scary,” said a ticket seller at the Ventura Greyhound station. “But for us, it’s pretty much business as usual. We haven’t beefed up security.”

And on Wednesday afternoon, a ban on all airmail had been reduced to include only packages, according to David Maser, a postal service spokesman in Los Angeles.

Ventura County postal officials said letter writers can expect a one-day delay in delivery of their outgoing missives, and package deliveries will be further delayed.

“We are accepting all packages, but workers have been told to notify customers that the possibility of their overnight deliveries getting there is uncertain,” said Sean Lang, customer service manager at the Oxnard post office. He added that delivery of incoming mail should not be delayed.

At the downtown Ventura post office, customers were angry at the Unabomber’s threat.

“I’m late with this already, [so] a few days’ delay isn’t going to matter,” said Ventura resident Lorne Swain, who was sending a video of his family’s Christmas celebration to his grandmother in Kansas.

“But if I had a business package with an important deadline to meet, I’d be really mad. It’s not fair that one crazy guy should have this effect on innocent people.”

Private mail carriers such as Federal Express and United Parcel Service reported “business as usual.” And news of the Unabomber’s threat was slow to reach many private mailbox organizations in Ventura County.

“We have no plans to tell our customers anything or do anything different with our overnight mail,” said Tom Von Allmen, manager of Mail Boxes Etc. in Oxnard.

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