Travel fears hurt stocks.(after World Trade Center, Pentagon attacks)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

Aerospace takes big hit

As chief executive of a business that organizes foreign tours for thousands of students a year, Jeff Thomas is bracing for a difficult period.

"I don't believe right now people are thinking the first thing they want to do is send their children overseas," said Thomas, who heads Spokanebased Ambassadors International Inc.'s main unit.

And with the United States threatening to retaliate and terrorists likely plotting further attacks, he said, 'We're planning for people to have a higher perceived level of danger" in coming months.

Such concerns pummeled airline and travel stocks when the markets reopened this week. The emergency aviation standstill delivered a roundhouse punch, to an already-shaky industry, and it was followed by a barrage of long-term worries that it could be months before the flying public can be coaxed back into the planes whose vulnerability was so horrifically demonstrated Sept. 11. …