Airport planning on curfew

BURBANK — Capping off years of debate, the tri-cities’ governing board of Bob Hope Airport announced it will present a plan to implement a mandatory curfew that would halt all late-night and early-morning flights at the airport, officials said.

But its passage could be in doubt if the Federal Aviation Administration grounds the plan.

The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority will present a draft of the Part 161 Study, which would impose a mandatory curfew on all flights from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., to the public at its March 17 meeting, and conduct an initial study session, airport spokesman Victor Gill said.

The study will then be subject to a 45-day comment period, a public workshop and public hearing, for which dates have not been set. Then it will then undergo the FAA approval process, Gill said.

News that the study will move forward comes more than two months after an administrative law judge allowed the airport to operate outside of state-mandated noise restrictions while it worked to reduce the noise burden for residents in the area. It also comes nearly two months after the Burbank City Council blessed the ruling after years of pressuring the authority to pass the noise restriction.

“We’ve been calling for this for years and years and sat in meetings and looked at the committees and said ‘we have to do this,’” Burbank Mayor Marsha Ramos said. “Did the council push the authority? I believe so. But it helped that the judge supported our position and acknowledged the value of moving in that direction.”

The curfew would affect an average of 36 flights every night and would force their aeronautical operations to shift to surrounding airports during the curfew, Gill said.

Van Nuys Airport could receive 16 flights, Ontario International Airport 13 flights, and Los Angeles International Airport might get three flights if the curfew is passed, he said.

Penalties for breaking the curfew would range from about $3,600 for first-time violators to twice and three times that amount for airlines that fly outside of the restriction two or three times, respectively, in a 12-month period, Gill said.

The fourth violation in a year would result in a fine of nearly $15,000 and a suspension or outright ban of flying into or out of the airport, he said.

Residents have called for the curfew since the airport authority was established in 1978, and the authority started working on the study in 2000, Gill said.