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More Pilot Discretion on Security Measures

The heightened security measures faced by air travelers in the United States and worldwide during the weekend were eased somewhat on Monday, the first business day after Friday’s terrorism incident on a jet bound to Detroit from Amsterdam, federal officials said.

But airlines still delayed and canceled flights in response to the measures, and blamed the disruptions on the security moves. And Canadian officials, seeking to reduce the backlog at the security checkpoints, have effectively banned carry-on luggage for passengers heading to the United States.

Gale D. Rossides, the acting director of the Transportation Security Administration, said her agency had given airline captains discretion in determining when passengers could move about the cabin during a flight and whether they could have blankets or pillows on their laps.

More changes in security measures will take place in coming days, Ms. Rossides said in an interview Monday.

Some airlines and their passengers have been critical of the measures, which were hastily imposed after Friday’s terrorism attempt by a 23-year old Nigerian. But Ms. Rossides said the agency was intentionally trying to make immediate, simple changes even if they were to be revoked later.

“The advantage we have of random unpredictable procedures is it will prevent somebody from figuring out how to game the system,” Ms. Rossides said. “The security strategy in its core has built in randomness and unpredictability. That is a strength of the system.”

At O’Hare in Chicago, security lines for United Airlines flights departing from Terminal One seemed lighter than on many Monday afternoons. Some passengers were subjected to hand pat-downs, but many other travelers passed through security with no additional screening.

Many passengers were arriving at airports earlier, only to find themselves with extra time on their hands. Several restaurants and bars were filled beyond normal capacity, workers said, with travelers anticipating a longer security screening process. Regional airports also instituted hand pat-downs to some travelers, but otherwise security procedures were normal.

At the airport in Lincoln, Neb., a half-dozen T.S.A. agents were working one security gate, but travelers passed through quickly. And on at least some United flights on Monday, additional screenings were not conducted on carry-on luggage before passengers boarded flights.

Other restrictions also were easing. Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong-based carrier with direct flights to New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, said American authorities had stopped requiring airlines to black out the route-tracking channel on their in-flight entertainment systems, one step hastily imposed with little warning to the carriers or passengers.

JetBlue Airways said in an update on Twitter that it had restored its LiveTV service on flights from outside the United States, which it had suspended briefly during the weekend.

International travelers had been told that they could not leave their seats for the last hour of a flight, during which time they also could not use a pillow or blanket, or have anything on their laps.

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An airport police officer kept watch over the travelers at Los Angeles International Airport.Credit...Jonathan Alcorn for The New York Times

President Obama said Monday in Hawaii that the United States was adding air marshals to flights leaving from or bound for the United States. There apparently was no air marshal aboard the Detroit bound plane on Friday, in which passengers and flight attendants subdued Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, after he ignited a device taped to his leg.

However, there was an air marshal aboard the same flight on Sunday, which was diverted to a remote part of the Detroit airport upon landing when a passenger became ill and refused to leave a bathroom.

Yet problems were still snarling some flights.

Transport Canada, without any advance notice, severely restricted carry-on luggage on flights headed for the United States.

Lucie Vignola, a spokeswoman for the government department, said the move was an attempt to reduce the passenger backlog created by the extra security screening measures started on the weekend on flights bound for American destinations.

“This is to alleviate the pressure,” Ms. Vignola said. “It means that they don’t have to go through bags item-by-item.”

There are limited exceptions: passengers are allowed a small purse provided it only contains only a small number of items like a wallet and a cellphone. Cameras and laptop computers may still be carried on as well as medication and diaper bags for passengers traveling with young children and infants. Ms. Vignola said, however, that passengers who attempt to include other items in bags with the exempted goods are being turned away.

Britain briefly banned carry on bags in August 2006, after a plot was discovered to blow up aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean. It rescinded the ban a few days later.

Earlier, Air Canada, which like many airlines saw its schedule disrupted over the weekend, said it was forced to cancel selected flights from Canada to the United States beginning Monday because of “protracted waits for customer security clearance at Canadian airports.”

It said the cancellations would mainly affect flights between Toronto and cities in the Northeast, like New York and Boston, where it operates multiple flights a day. Passengers bound from Canada to the United States typically go through customs and security at Canadian airports, allowing them to skip the clearance when they arrive in the United States.

“Our No. 1 priority is the safety and security of our customers and staff. Unfortunately, the delays are being caused by matters entirely outside our control,” said Duncan Dee, the airline’s chief operating officer. “We appreciate the cooperation and understanding of our customers during this challenging time.”

On Saturday, Air Canada was the first to disclose wide-ranging new security measures installed at airports outside the United States by the T.S.A. after a Nigerian man caused a fire aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Friday by igniting a device taped to his leg.

The steps include enhanced screening for international passengers, both at check points and at airport gates, as well as pat-downs of passengers before they board aircraft.

The T.S.A. issued an update on its Web site Sunday that said passengers would be subject to greater security, but its information was not as detailed as the memorandums sent to airlines this weekend. The airlines said the new measures required an additional round of searches, including body pat-downs at airport gates overseas.

There also were various measures at airports in the United States, where lines at screening machines grew long. Some passengers at JFK Airport reported having their palms swabbed to check for explosives, a measure that is sometimes used at foreign airports.

Reporting was contributed by Ian Austen in Ottawa, Rebecca Cathcart in Los Angeles, Robert C. Herguth and Jeff Zeleny in Chicago, Sarah Maslin Nir in New York, Mark McDonald in Hong Kong, Nate Schweber in San Francisco, Bill Vlasic in Romulus, Mich., and Karen Zraick in Newark.

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