Bob Hope Airport sees fewer passengers in March

The number of passengers traveling through Bob Hope Airport declined by almost 4% last month compared to March 2013, according to the latest statistics.

There were 320,787 passengers last month, a roughly 3.9% slide from 333,647 passengers the same time a year ago, according to a report released by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday.

It’s the second straight month of passenger declines for the airfield, which reported a 1.3% drop in February, following increases of 3% and 1.2% in January and December 2013, respectively.

However, the airport saw a roughly 5.2% decline in passengers overall in 2013.

In looking at individual airlines, Southwest — the largest carrier by far at the airport — also reported an almost 3.9% slide in passengers, going from 249,474 in March 2013 to 239,861 last month.

“Southwest was down and that was what was driving our decline for the month,” said Dan Feger, the airport’s executive director.

However, he said, numbers for the year are slightly ahead of expectations.

“We are actually ahead of where we thought we would be in terms of passengers when we prepared the budget nearly a year ago,” Feger said.

Despite the drop in passengers, parking revenue remains strong, coming in 6.7% higher than March 2013.

Parking revenue totaled roughly $1.66 million last month, up from about $1.55 million a year earlier.

The revenue stream is mainly due to the end of saving a portion of parking funds to cover past litigation costs.

After two years, airport officials have stopped allocating $1 from each parking transaction to cover a 2011 settlement with Lockheed Martin Corp.

Also, the airport authority increased fees in some of its parking lots, Feger said.

Passenger counts at other airports in the region varied. Los Angeles International Airport handled 4.3% more passengers, while Ontario International Airport saw a 0.4% drop.

John Wayne Airport reported a 0.6% uptick in passengers, and Long Beach Airport’s passenger tally declined 5%.

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Follow Mark Kellam on Twitter: @LAMarkKellam.

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