Briefly in the news

Travelers are returning to John Wayne Airport three months after the

Sept. 11 terrorist attacks crippled the nation’s airports.

Passenger traffic was down 7.7% in November compared with the same

month in 2000. However, that was less of a drop than in October, which

saw a 15% drop when compared with that month last year.

The 11 commercial airlines at John Wayne flew 2.9% fewer flights than

in November 2000.

There were 6,681 flights compared with 6,879 a year earlier. For the

first 11 months of the year, 6.75-million passengers used the airport --

7.16-million travelers used John Wayne for the first 11 months of 2000.