Airport

CRAIG BULLOCK This year marks the 75th anniversary of an airport in Burbank. During its storied history, the airport has seen many changes in names, owners, aircraft and people, which have contributed to its evolution into what it is today. In the late 1920s Austin Co., Engineers and Builders, along with officials from Boeing Air Transport Corp., carefully planned the site where the airport was constructed. Before the airport was constructed, the vacant 243-acre land had to be cleared of more than 100 huge oak and eucalyptus trees.

Laura Sturza Military planes and helicopters were frequent sights in the skies above Burbank for weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked commercial planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field. But like many security matters, officials declined to confirm or deny an increased military presence. "The military activity certainly skyrocketed, as did the orders for military parts," said Les Copeland, owner of Empire Manufacturing in Burbank, which supplies aircraft parts to the military.

After I read about the airport's proposed agreement between the parties, I thought the 10-year period on the prohibition of building a new terminal was a stretch. Ten years is a long time. Despite this guarantee, it still stirred the wrath of the anti-expansion troops. Several well-written, erudite letters implied the airport would find a way around the agreement. The conspiracy theorists are on the march. Can't they even agree on a reasonable negotiated contract?

Ryan Carter AIRPORT DISTRICT -- A 39-year-old North Hollywood man was arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon after Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport police found a gun and a man-made silencer in his baggage, authorities said. Philip Wright Adcok, who was in a wheelchair, was checking in his luggage Oct. 19 at an airport ticket counter when police found a .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun and a crudely made plastic silencer inside a first-aid bag, Burbank Police Sgt. Bill Taylor said.

Ben Godar Despite sharp criticism this week from City Council members, Burbank-Glendale-Pas- adena Airport officials maintain that foot traffic from a privately owned parking lot creates safety and liability problems, and say they have no plans to accommodate pedestrians in the area. Since Star Park opened in January, airport officials have closed a crosswalk leading from the lot to Terminal B and have put up no-crossing signs. In March, airport police began issuing $90 tickets to violators, but stopped doing so after a judge ruled June 9 that the airport did not have the authority to enforce the regulation.

The City Council decided in closed session meetings to recom- mend that the Burbank-Glen- dale-Pasadena Airport retain land for a new terminal until a decision is reached about a noise curfew. "The city needs to know whether we can get a curfew in order to decide whether it can support a new terminal or not," Mayor David Laurell said at Tuesday's City Council meeting. At a Feb. 26 meeting, Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Marion Blakey asked local officials to reach a decision about a replacement terminal in 60 days.

Laura Sturza AIRPORT DISTRICT -- Security screeners at Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport and nationwide will be under federal supervision starting Sunday. The change is expected to be invisible for travelers, officials said. Current screeners, who were contracted with private security agencies, will have their contracts taken over by the federal government's Transportation Security Administration. Starting Nov. 19, all scanners will be required to be federal employees.

On the face of it, the letter from David M. Simmons regarding a new terminal building at the airport seems pretty reasonable. But it isn't. First, Mr. Simmons states that the FAA has had a long-standing request for relocation of the terminal. To my knowledge, the FAA has never requested that the terminal be relocated. Rather, the FAA has simply stated that if the terminal is moved that it will have to comply with newer requirements regarding the distance from the runways to the building.

BURBANK — An allegedly drunk driver broke through the concrete wall in a parking structure at Bob Hope Airport Tuesday night, leaving him with minor injuries after he fell nearly 20 feet from the second level, officials said. The car was exiting the parking lot, going from the third floor to the second floor, when Simon Graef, a 70-year-old from Valley Village, apparently accelerated toward the wall shortly before 10 p.m. as he tried to leave the structure, Burbank Police Sgt. Travis Irving said.

Lolita Harper AIRPORT DISTRICT -- Aaron Sorkin, creator of the NBC-TV drama "The West Wing," was arrested Sunday on suspicion of possessing illicit mushrooms, police said. Sorkin, a 39-year-old Los Angeles resident, was stopped at an airport checkpoint at 3:15 p.m. for a routine weapons search when members of the airport staff found a suspicious plastic bag in his carry-on luggage, said Sgt. Tom Davenport, airport police spokesman. Airport police were called, and allegedly identified the substance as illicit mushrooms, Davenport said.

There's really no surprise that revenues are down at Burbank's Bob Hope Airport. I am an infrequent flier, and have utilized the Burbank airport for nearly 45 years. I recall the days when you could fly to most every major city out of Burbank Airport, non-stop. Now you must pay the same short-term parking rate as at Los Angeles International Airport, $31 per day. No wonder parking revenues are down. And you can no longer fly to many U.S. cities non-stop from Burbank. In fact, there are very few places you can get to non-stop.

For the first time in more than three years, the number of passengers at Bob Hope Airport increased in March - even if it was by only a slight uptick. A total of 333,647 passengers passed through the airport in March, a 0.27% increase from 332,740 from the same time last year, according to statistics released Monday to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority. The slight improvement comes as a sharp contrast to the first two months of the year, when airfield officials reported double-digit declines in passengers.

Bob Hope Airport is aiming for a financial touchdown with a new marketing agreement with UCLA Athletics and the Rose Bowl that will tap into the university's millions of sports fans. The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday unanimously approved spending $327,000 over the next three years on a contract that will position Bob Hope as the official airport of the Rose Bowl. That designation includes signage at the stadium, a special logo, promotion on the video board during UCLA football games and inclusion in all print publications, such as the Rose Bowl Stadium Guide.

Bob Hope Airport is welcoming a new commuter airline this month whose routes will connect the Imperial Valley to Los Angeles and beyond. On Wednesday, Portland, Ore.-based SeaPort Airlines launched its new slate of 12 non-stop, round-trip flights per week into Terminal A using nine-seat Cessna Caravan propeller planes. During May SeaPort is offering an introductory fare of $39 each way. SeaPort spokeswoman Claire James said that when SeaPort initiated plans to offer flights to San Diego out of Imperial County Airport, it became apparent there was local demand for flights to the Los Angeles area, too. The largest city in Imperial County is El Centro, with roughly 42,000 residents in the southeastern corner of the state, near the Mexican border.

It's been a rough two years for Bob Hope Airport, where a precipitous drop in the number of passengers using the regional airfield has meant a worrying drop in revenues. Fewer passengers mean fewer receipts at parking lots, concessions and other revenue-generating enterprises that fund operations and pay for badly needed infrastructure upgrades. Assuming what's good for the airport is good for the airlines, the solution seems simple. "If the airlines reduced their rates at Burbank and made it more competitive, there would be more passengers and we'd be in better shape; there's no mystery to this," said Terry Tornek, a member of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority.

To comply with the city of Burbank's requirement for public art, Bob Hope Airport needs to come up with an additional quarter-million dollars for its new transportation center. Airfield officials are hoping to raise the money through an ambitious plan for a new pavilion celebrating the local airport's history. The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday voted 7-1 to move forward with plans to spend the extra money on artwork in its transit center , which is currently under construction, and to raise those funds by selling naming rights in the new pavilion.

Security at Bob Hope Airport was ramped up on Monday until the nature of two explosions in Boston could be determined, a spokesman for the airfield said. Two explosions rocked the finish line area of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and causing dozens of injuries as of Monday afternoon, authorities reported. [Updated April 16, 2013 : This post was updated to reflect a higher number of casualities. ] Bob Hope Airport spokesman Victor Gill said security had been increased “and that's really all I can say about it until more is known.” “We are aware of [the Boston Marathon explosions]

This post has been corrected. See details below. The number of passengers traveling through Bob Hope Airport fell by double digits for the second straight month in February, dropping 11.6%. The airport handled 282,073 passengers in February, down from 309,259 in February 2012, according to statistics released Monday during a meeting of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority. The latest decline follows a 12% nosedive in January. That drop, which surprised airport staff, came after a year that saw a steady slide in passengers.

San Fernando Valley officials want the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority to prioritize connecting Bob Hope Airport with more public transit. The MTA Board passed a resolution Thursday to acknowledge a list of transportation priorities and projects put forth by the San Fernando Valley Council of Governments. Board members said MTA staff will prepare a report on their feasibility and status in 90 days. The list includes constructing a new Metrolink station on Hollywood Way, connecting the airport with existing train service to the Antelope Valley.

Residents living near Bob Hope Airport who have been waiting to take advantage of a federally funded residential soundproofing program shouldn't wait any longer. After more than a decade and a half of installing new windows and doors in homes surrounding the airport, the eligible area for the soundproofing program is going to shrink, airport officials said during a Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority meeting on Monday. Due to quieter aircraft and fewer flights in general, the airport is projecting a much smaller noise-impact zone over the next five years - and that projection is used by the Federal Aviation Administration to determine which homeowners qualify for soundproofing projects.