Flights

Bob Hope Airport officials approved additional parking rate increases this week to tackle steady revenue drops caused by declining passenger activity that's expected to be exacerbated by JetBlue's decision to eliminate all daytime flights at the airfield as of Jan. 6. The decision will eliminate one daily flight to JFK International Airport in New York City and another to Las Vegas. JetBlue's evening service to JFK will continue. A spokeswoman for the airline, Tamara Young, said in a statement that customer demand is “the ultimate factor in determining a route or flight schedule.” And despite cutbacks in Burbank, JetBlue's overall network continues to expand, Young said.

Jet Blue canceled two New York-bound flights from Bob Hope Airport on Monday as Hurricane Sandy pummeled the Eastern Seaboard. Flight 350 and 358 to John F. Kennedy International Airport were canceled, as were flights 355 and 359 coming out of New York, Victor Gill, a spokesman for Bob Hope Airport, said in an email. Jet Blue also canceled Flight 350 to JFK on Tuesday. Scores more flights - about 130 - had been canceled at Los Angeles International Airport as of Monday, The Times reported . Officials warned that additional flights could be affected by the super storm, which was expected to force more than 60 of those cancellations Monday.

Only a handful of Southwest Airlines flights out of Bob Hope Airport have been cancelled since one of the airline’s planes ripped open mid-flight in route from Phoenix to Sacramento. The airline voluntarily removed 79 of the 171 Boeing 737-300 aircraft in its fleet from service on Saturday to complete full inspections. The inspections resulted in eight cancelled flights from the Burbank airport. Boeing’s 737-700 model, a different version of the plane, is in primary use there.

Airplanes at Bob Hope Airport were grounded Tuesday evening because of a reported power outage or communication breakdown at the Federal Aviation Admini- stration's Los Angeles Center air-traffic control facility in Palmdale, airport officials said. Airplanes arriving when the stoppage was enacted shortly after 5 p.m. were allowed to land, but departing flights were put on hold, airport spokesman Victor Gill said. The grounding was still in effect as of late Tuesday.

Laura Sturza AIRPORT DISTRICT -- The Airport Authority sent a letter to United Airlines, asking the carrier to change its plans for 6:16 a.m. daily flights to Denver starting June 7. Similar letters are sent to airlines when seasonal schedule changes can affect the voluntary agreement with the carriers not to schedule flights from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., Airport Authority spokesman Victor Gill said. The letter to United was sent Monday. Seasonal changes are usually related to added flights during summer and weather pattern shifts, Gill said.

AIRPORT DISTRICT — Proposed cutbacks for Southwest Airlines — Bob Hope Airport’s largest carrier — are due to take effect May 10, but the impact on the airport could be offset by its burgeoning revenue, airport officials said. Southwest Airlines, which accounts for up to 65% of departing and arriving flights, will cut four flights a day from its Burbank schedule, citing the country’s economic woes, Southwest spokeswoman Ashley Rodgers said. One daily round-trip flight from Phoenix, another from Sacramento and two from Oakland will be canceled, she said.

Ben Godar The City Council plans to send letters to two airline carriers asking them to stop offering Sunday morning flights during Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport's voluntary curfew, which ends at 7 a.m. United Airlines currently offers a 6:40 a.m. flight to San Francisco, and American Airlines offers a 6:49 a.m. flight to Dallas. City staff has drafted letters that were expected to be sent pending approval by the council Tuesday night, City Atty.

BURBANK — American Airlines flights were beginning to come and go again Friday after the carrier had canceled its entire schedule of flights in and out of Bob Hope Airport on Wednesday and Thursday. The limited service at Bob Hope on Friday came after a string of nationwide cancellations as the carrier works to correct problems related to wiring in its MD-80 planes. Eight trips, originally scheduled to and from the airline’s hub in Fort Worth, Texas — four each on Wednesday and Thursday — stranded more than 800 customers in Burbank as American continued its federally mandated investigation into the wrapping and securing of wire bundles in the wheel wells of all American’s 300 MD-80 jets, officials said.

BURBANK — They might be seeing less passengers these days, but the staff at Bob Hope Airport want you to know there’s “More airport than you thought” in Burbank. Airport staff conceived the new advertising slogan to help generate new business as Burbank’s slumping passenger levels mirror a national trend. The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority’s new campaign comes on the heels of recently released July passenger levels that showed a decline of nearly 13% compared with a year ago. The figures reflect an ongoing trend in reduced passenger counts.

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.

Halfway through its fiscal year, Bob Hope Airport's operating revenues are running more than $150,000 in the red due to declining numbers of passengers and weak parking revenues, according to a recent financial report. Parking fees, which make up about 40% of the airport's revenues, were budgeted to bring in $9.5 million but only produced $8.9 million, according to the report released to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday. Passenger levels for the first half of the fiscal year - July to December 2012 - declined almost 6.8% compared to the same period in the last fiscal year.

Bob Hope Airport officials approved additional parking rate increases this week to tackle steady revenue drops caused by declining passenger activity that's expected to be exacerbated by JetBlue's decision to eliminate all daytime flights at the airfield as of Jan. 6. The decision will eliminate one daily flight to JFK International Airport in New York City and another to Las Vegas. JetBlue's evening service to JFK will continue. A spokeswoman for the airline, Tamara Young, said in a statement that customer demand is “the ultimate factor in determining a route or flight schedule.” And despite cutbacks in Burbank, JetBlue's overall network continues to expand, Young said.

Jet Blue canceled two New York-bound flights from Bob Hope Airport on Monday as Hurricane Sandy pummeled the Eastern Seaboard. Flight 350 and 358 to John F. Kennedy International Airport were canceled, as were flights 355 and 359 coming out of New York, Victor Gill, a spokesman for Bob Hope Airport, said in an email. Jet Blue also canceled Flight 350 to JFK on Tuesday. Scores more flights - about 130 - had been canceled at Los Angeles International Airport as of Monday, The Times reported . Officials warned that additional flights could be affected by the super storm, which was expected to force more than 60 of those cancellations Monday.

BURBANK - With its unforgiving barrancas and challenging layout, there were girls' golfers who didn't particularly enjoy playing at De Bell Golf Club Thursday, the site of the 12th annual Magnolia Park Optimist Club Girls' High School Invitational. Included in that group were Crescenta Valley High's Jocelyn Chia and Burbank's Irene Maemura, although it is her team's home course. However, there were also players who enjoyed the challenges that De Bell presented, including Burroughs' Stephanie Adachi and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame's Katelyn Reynolds.

A Southwest Airlines flight on its way to Bob Hope Airport in Burbank returned to Oakland on Tuesday morning as a precaution after a strong odor was reported in the passenger cabin. Brad Hawkins, an airline spokesman, told The Times that Flight 508 with 137 passengers and five crew members aboard circled back to Oakland International Airport shortly after taking off about 7 a.m. Hawkins said the aircraft landed safely and the passengers were transferred to another flight.

Unfortunately, no one can be told what the parrots do. You have to see them for yourself. I drove Verdugo's wide lanes Thursday afternoon bopping along with David Lee Roth and his newly reunited Van Halen bandmates when a new sound clipped my ears. I turned down Diamond Dave and his advice to “stay frosty” (which I accomplished with a root beer) so I could better experience the cackling growing louder as Frederic Street neared. The sound was coming from a tree near the street corner, and the tree writhed as if caught in a light wind.

The decision by American Airlines to pull out of Bob Hope Airport might further harm an airfield that has been grappling with a yearlong slide in passenger numbers, which gained the notice of an important credit rating agency. American, which made up 7.5% of passenger traffic - roughly 3.9 million people - at Bob Hope from January to November 2011, will stop flying out of Burbank on Feb. 9, the airline announced Monday. American flies two to three flights a day out of Burbank, said airline spokesman Ed Martelle.

American Airlines , which filed for bankruptcy protection in November, is closing its operations at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank and ending flights from Dallas-Fort Worth to New Delhi . In addition to closing operations at those two airports, the airline said it plans to cut 150 positions. "Our objective is to make our company competitive and more efficient in an increasingly challenging industry," the airline said in a statement Monday. The flights from Bob Hope Airport will end Feb.

Burbank Police Sgt. Robert Quesada has always been fascinated with aviation and airports. “I knew Burbank had an air support unit,” Quesada said. “I said, 'You know, I want to fly, I would love to fly one day.'” Quesada would get his wish - more than once. For the third time in his 30 years with the department, Quesada has been assigned to air support. Since Nov. 1, the former department spokesman has served as the Officer in Charge for the air support unit for Burbank and Glendale police.