It was soon after Alabama Homeland Security Director Jim Walker got off a conference call with federal Homeland Security officials at 1 a.m. that the word went out to all of the state’s airports about heightened security because of a foiled terrorist plot in London.

“There is no specific threat against targets in Alabama,” said a message from Gov. Bob Riley’s office. “However, commercial aircraft passengers in the state can expect longer delays because the nation’s terror threat alert level has been raised for commercial flights.”

U.S. authorities raised the threat level to “red” for flights from Britain, the first time the highest threat of terrorist attack had been invoked since the system was created. All other flights were under an “orange” alert — one step below red.

Huntsville International Airport spokeswoman Cindy Maloney said she got a call at about 4 a.m. from the Transportation Safety Administration, and by the time she got to the airport, security personnel were on the job. The airport authority office fielded calls all morning and afternoon from concerned travelers, asking about prohibited items.

Huntsville has no international passenger flights, but does ship cargo internationally.

Air travelers were ordered to throw out their suntan lotion and shampoo and sometimes waited hours in ever lengthening lines Thursday as airports ratcheted up security and delayed flights at major airports by in the U.S. and abroad.

Maloney said that the line waiting to go through security screening in Huntsville reached about 30 feet, but that is not unusual for early-morning flights between 5:30 and 7, and no one had more than a 20-minute wait.

“The only thing was that the line moved a little slower because everyone had to take off their shoes,” she said.

The new ban on all liquids and gels from carry-on luggage — including toothpaste, makeup, perfume and suntan lotion — left people with little choice but to throw away juice boxes, and makeup. Baby formula and medicines were exempt but had to be inspected.

Maloney said that “everyone was very good-natured” about having to either discard or pack liquids in checked baggage.

“For the most part, they just tossed them into a garbage can, but if it were, say, a $60 jar of face cream, they pulled it out and packed it away.”

Jim Clark, 50, of Dallas, Texas, was waiting in the Huntsville passenger terminal, hoping to catch a 3 p.m. direct flight to Dallas, two hours before his regularly scheduled flight home. He said he was “not at all” nervous about flying under heightened security.

“If I was going international today, I would be nervous,” said Clark, an electronics salesman who flies two or three times a month. “But I’m going right straight through to Dallas.

Clark said he doesn’t mind the security delays. “It’s part of the deal,” he said. “The only thing that would irritate me would be if they wouldn’t be more careful because they were in a hurry and just rifle through a bag to get it out of the way.”

Arriving Huntsville passenger Christian Beaudry, 22, said he had flown from New York Tuesday morning to make it back to classes at UAH.

“It was the same deal as always, but they wouldn’t let me bring any juice,” said Beaudry. “But then, I always get pulled aside anyway. I guess it must be my age. The last time I flew out of Syracuse (N.Y.) there were guards with M-16s. I really don’t mind being searched. I don’t have anything to hide—at least until they make me miss my flight.”

The plot in Britain targeted flights from Britain to the U.S., particularly to New York, Washington and California on United Airlines, American Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc., a counterterrorism official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the plot appeared to have been engineered by al-Qaida, the terrorist group that hijacked two planes from Boston on Sept. 11, 2001, and flew them into the World Trade Center towers in New York.