Sep. 22--While the travel industry figures to lose billions of dollars of business -- at least in the short term -- following last week's terrorist hijacking of four jets, the online sales side of the business should take less of a hit. And it should rebound faster than the industry overall. 

That's the forecast of Forrester online travel analyst Henry Harteveldt. 

Online travel services, such as Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity, say they're already seeing business pick up, as airlines try bring order to their schedules and meet heightened security standards. 

"This is not a crisis of confidence in the Web," says Harteveldt. "We continue to hear every day from people in the industry who say their online sales continue to rebound -- though they're still below pre-Sept. 11 levels." 

Online travel companies, taking a cue from the airlines, have been lowering their projections for bookings and earnings. Fort Worth-based Sabre Holdings Corp., for instance, which operates the largest reservation system for airlines and hotels, has said it expects third-quarter earnings to come in 18 to 28 cents a share under analysts' expectations of 63 cents a share. 

The projection is based on estimates that airline traffic will fall 45 percent to 60 percent in the last three weeks of September. Last year, online leisure travel sales, including plane tickets, hotels, cruises and car rentals, totaled $12.2 billion, according to Forrester. This year, the Massachusetts-based consulting firm had projected 18.8 million households would spend $16.7 billion at online travel sites, accounting for about 8 percent of the $219 billion spent overall on travel. 

Forrester will ratchet down its forecast numbers Monday, though it's not saying how much. 

Several factors point to the Web's long-term growth as a key sales channel for travel, though, says Harteveldt. 

It's a cheap, efficient sales channel for companies. 

People who buy travel services online tend to be fairly wealthy, with an average household income of about $73,0000, and they're therefore less likely to stop traveling as the economy sputters. And if they're intellectually convinced flying is safe, their emotions won't stop them, Harteveldt said. 

Online travel firms, like their offline counterparts, of course, have been overwhelmed by customers seeking to cancel reservations, rebook tickets, seek refunds, and learn about new airport security requirements. 

"Like most every other company, especially in the travel industry, we did see a significant drop-off in the four, five days after the tragic events, in some case as much as 60 percent," said Jim Marsicano, executive vice president of sales and services for Travelocity. Now traffic is about 55 percent of what it had been before the attacks and it continues to grow. 

Privately held Orbitz saw its call volume more than double last week, as confused customers looked to speak to someone. 

Traffic on Orbitz' Web site is probably down about 40 percent, said spokeswoman Stacey Spencer. 

Business has also dropped dramatically at Expedia, the online travel site created by Microsoft. 

From Sept. 12 through Sept. 16, Expedia reports that bookings were running at between 35 percent and 40 percent of the levels for the same days in the prior week. 

The Associated Press contributed to this article. 

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