Airport has record passenger totals

AIRPORT DISTRICT — Passenger activity at the Bob Hope Airport during the first half of 2007 reached record highs, exceeding figures tallied prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Between January and June, about 2.86 million passengers traveled in and out of Burbank's airport — which is up about 23% from the 2.33 million passengers traveling during the same period in 2001, Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority statistics show.

Air travel out of Burbank was seeing an upward trend, until the events of Sept. 11, 2001, sent air travel statistics plummeting nationwide, airport spokesman Victor Gill said.

Since then, passenger activity has gradually recovered, with a particularly strong passenger increase this spring versus last year, Gill said.

"If you go into the fall months and even into the winter months [of 2006], things were fairly flat," he said. "That continued to be the case the first three or four months of this year. But starting in May and June we have seen some stronger increases."

Passenger loads were up 3.5% between January and June, over the first six months of 2006, he said.

The airport's addition this year of another carrier, Skybus Airlines, is one factor behind increased passenger levels, he said.

"Automatically there is an additional 11,500 passengers that weren't there last year," he said.

Strong performances from the airport's existing carriers are also driving up statistics, he said.

"The other big, single item that pops out is Southwest," he said. "When it increases, everything increases — because it's 60% of the activity here. And they went from 306,975 [passengers] last year to 332,870, which is an 8.44% increase."

Four other regional airports in Southern California — LA/Ontario International Airport, Long Beach Airport, Palm Springs International Airport and John Wayne Airport in Orange County — are undergoing the same upward trend in passenger travel, according to the El Toro Information Site, a website that tracks Southern California's commercial airports.

That increase can be attributed, in part, to a tendency among travelers to avoid larger airports such as the Los Angeles International Airport, said El Toro spokesman Leonard Kranser.

"There's been a significant decline in domestic passengers, particularly out of LAX," he said. "And my understanding, as well as my personal experience, is that it's a hassle driving into L.A.; it's a hassle getting through the terminal, through security and people wherever possible are turning to closer airports like Burbank, John Wayne and Long Beach. And I think proximity is an important factor because they're not flocking out to Ontario in any similar numbers."

Los Angeles International Airport suffered a 7.4% drop in passengers from the first six months of 2000 to the same period this year, in the midst of increases elsewhere, he said.