After weather delay, Southwest launches SFO service from Bob Hope Airport
Along with a stocking full of goodies, a special treat awaited Calder DuPont on Christmas morning: special Santa-made, candy-cane-striped tickets for a flight from Burbank to San Francisco for him and his mother. It would be his first time flying, a longtime wish list item for the 6-year-old.
“I woke up before my mom. My mom was like way asleep,” Calder said at Bob Hope Airport’s Gate A6 Wednesday, recalling his discovery of Santa’s gift. “I felt excited.”
Awaiting that first flight’s departure from the Burbank airfield, he got a taste of another air travel first when the departure time had to be delayed more than an hour due to wet weather in the Bay Area. He and his mother, Michelle DuPont of Los Angeles, passed the time tossing back and forth a foam airplane, a gift not from Santa this time, but from airport staff.
The planes, along with slices of a large cake from Porto’s Bakery, were offered to passengers in celebration of yet another first: Southwest Airlines Flight 1860’s inaugural trip to San Francisco International Airport. It is the first route added to the carrier’s roster at the Burbank airfield since 2011, when it added service to Denver.
With three flights to San Francisco each day Sunday through Friday and two flights on Saturdays, Southwest now provides service to all three Bay Area airports from Bob Hope Airport. The airline announced last month that it will also be adding a new route to Dallas this summer.
However, cake wasn’t reserved for travelers heading to San Francisco this week. Kerry Gustafsson stopped to enjoy a piece after arriving in Burbank on a trip that originated in Omaha, Neb. Gustafsson had just learned her sister’s flight from Portland into Burbank had been diverted to Las Vegas due to local wet weather over the Media City.
The airport received nearly 1.2 inches of rain on Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.
With three flights to San Francisco each day Sunday through Friday and two flights on Saturdays, Southwest now provides service to all three Bay Area airports from Bob Hope Airport. The airline announced last month that it will also be adding a new route to Dallas this summer.
As of Thursday afternoon, not all of the airlines had yet reported on how the previous day’s weather had impacted their operations, said Lucy Burghdorf, an airport spokeswoman, but at least two United Airlines flights were canceled and a total of 11 departures on Southwest Airlines — the local airfield’s largest carrier — to various destinations were delayed an hour or two, she said.
Gustafsson, who came to Los Angeles for the Friday night opening of an art show by her sister Nicole Gustafsson, was told her sister would arrive from Las Vegas more than two hours later than planned.
She said she chose to fly into Bob Hope Airport because it was cheaper than Los Angeles International Airport, although last time she flew into Burbank, the runway lights wouldn’t illuminate. She said as savvy travelers they anticipated possible delays on this trip.
“Thankfully, we planned so that we allow extra time,” Gustafsson said. After cutting into a slice of cake with her fork, she added: “We have to have some fun while we’re making a trip.”
For Calder and his mom, the trip north was expected to be “pure fun,” Michelle DuPont said. They planned to visit the Exploratorium later Wednesday before driving down the coast for an overnight stay and a Thursday trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Calder, wearing green, dinosaur claw-inspired rain boots, showed off the gear he’d packed in preparation for the trip: sunglasses, a jacket, a flashlight, mittens and three stuffed animal sharks — “sand shark, tiger shark and a great white.
“And I don’t know why my mom brought this, but an umbrella,” he said.
Michelle DuPont said she had a feeling they’d need it.
She said she chose to fly out of Burbank without even realizing it was the first flight on the new route. She selected it because the airport reminds her of what it was like to fly when she was a kid.
“It makes me happy,” she said. “I like the fact that you have to go outside, even though it’s raining.”
