Burbank Airport survey finds support for new terminal

By a roughly 2-to-1 margin, area residents said they favor construction of a replacement terminal at Bob Hope Airport, according to a recent poll.

Among those surveyed in Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and portions of Los Angeles near the airfield, 67% favored a replacement terminal that would be farther from the runway — a move long pushed by the Federal Aviation Administration. The poll was conducted by Goodwin Simon Strategic Research.

The support is good news for the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, which for years has been mulling over ways to build public and political support for a new terminal, which the FAA has repeatedly said is too close to the runway. Portions of the existing terminal also do not meet current seismic standards.

The survey results were released during a joint meeting Thursday of the Burbank City Council and airport authority last week. The results are based on 1,111 interviews conducted between Feb. 11 and Feb. 19. More than half of the respondents — 598 — live in Burbank.

The most common concerns raised by those surveyed was the cost of a new terminal and how it would be paid for.

All of the funding for a replacement terminal would come from the airport, which is self-sustaining through parking revenue, rental fees and passenger-related charges, said Dan Feger, the airport authority’s executive director.

Other questions were posed in the survey, including some involving how much noise and traffic the airport generates. But a majority of the respondents didn’t feel those issues were major concerns, the results showed.

The strong support for a new terminal in the survey surprised some who were aware of the historical push-back against the plan.

But airport officials said the authority has made considerable efforts to address residents’ concerns. Technological advances have been beneficial too.

For example, quieter planes now fly into and out of the airfield, and a years-long sound-insulation program has been implemented for nearby homes and schools.

mark.kellam@latimes.com