Karen S. Kim
AIRPORT DISTRICT -- Burbank Airport will continue collecting a $3
passenger facility charge for the next 11 years, but this time the funds
will be used for a different purpose, the Federal Aviation Administration
said Monday.
The airport had been collecting a $3 passenger charge since 1994, but
the revenues were designated for acquiring land for a new terminal.
Through the FAA's approval of a new PFC application, the airport can
now collect up to $73.7 million, and more than $66 million will go toward
the acoustical treatment of Burbank and Sun Valley homes and schools,
airport officials said.
The remaining funds will be used to reimburse the airport for its past
projects, including roadway and airfield pavement repairs, aircraft
rescue, firefighting equipment, airfield signage and lighting.
"We've already expressed our intention to pursue the acoustical
treatment program as aggressively as possible, but beyond intentions
you've got to have money," said Victor Gill, Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena
Airport Authority spokesman. "This puts the money on the table to make it
a reality."
All passengers departing from the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport
will be charged the $3 fee. With 2.3 million to 2.4 million passengers
each year flights at the airport, the PFC will contribute more than $6
million each year to the airport's revenues.
"The PFC was enabled by Congress in the early 1990s as a means to make
sure the revenues collected went directly to the airport instead of using
Congress as a middleman," Gill said, adding that the funds collected
through a federal Aviation Trust Fund charge take a long time to get to
individual airports.
Airport officials hope that the money collected through the PFC will
enable them to reach their goal of insulating 3,100 homes by 2015, about
300 homes each year.
Since the home insulation pilot program's initiation in 1996, about
250 homes are in the design stages of treatment and 219 homes are funded
but still awaiting design, Gill said.
