FAA Objects to Wide-Body Jets Landing in Burbank

The Federal Aviation Administration, concerned about delays in building a new passenger terminal at Burbank Airport, said it will object if wide-body passenger planes are introduced as planned.

In a letter to Robert W. Garcin, president of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, the FAA said that, if wide-body planes are going to use the facility, airport commissioners should develop a specific plan that would take into account the location of the existing terminal. The FAA has ruled that the terminal is too close to the runway.

In the meantime, the federal agency ordered the airport authority to implement several safety measures while it looks for a new terminal site. Those measures include shifting almost all arrivals and departures to the north-south runway and moving parked aircraft farther from the east-west runway.

United Plans

The letter, signed by Homer C. McClure, director of the Western Pacific Region for the FAA, came less than three weeks after the authority voted to allow United Airlines to start service at the airport using Boeing 767 jetliners, which are larger than passenger planes now using the airport.

United spokesman Alan Wayne said airline officials were evaluating the “ramifications of the FAA letter” and would respond Monday at an authority meeting.

Representatives of homeowner groups who had voiced opposition to additional United flights because of increased jet noise said the FAA letter gave them little consolation.

“We all know that United is going to get in there, anyway,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. “As we suspected, the authority and the FAA will do whatever they can together to increase the number of flights at the airport.”

‘Refusing to Be Up Front’

Tom Paterson, president of the North Hollywood Homeowners Assn., said: “We have called repeatedly for a freeze on operations until there is a specific plan. But even the FAA is refusing to be up front about what’s going on.”

Although Garcin said the authority voted to admit United at its last meeting on Feb. 3, several commissioners said they thought they had actually voted to postpone the question until the Monday meeting.

At that meeting, the authority will decide how to implement the FAA’s directives. When implemented, airport officials said, the measures will eliminate more than 1,000 parking spaces at the facility and would alter airline operations.

The letter said certain variations in airport layout standards, which include allowing aircraft to park between the east-west runway and the terminal, were permitted because of ongoing negotiations to build a new terminal on property owned by Lockheed Corp.

The existing terminal, built 55 years ago, is too close to the airport’s two runways to meet current FAA safety standards, officials said.

But the federal government has ruled that the site airport officials were considering was too close to a facility where Lockheed conducts secret defense projects.

“Since there are no immediate plans for terminal relocation, the following safety enhancements should be implemented,” said the letter.

The enhancements include:

Relocation of airline gates and aircraft parking spots, which would be accomplished by eliminating many slots in the automobile parking lot east of the terminal. The planes would be 200 feet from the center of the runway, instead of the current 150 feet.

Construction of a separate taxiway at a site now occupied by a remote parking lot north of the east-west runway, next to Hollywood Way. Planes now taxi on the runways on arrival.

Use of the north-south runway for arrivals and departures of planes with gross weights above 12,500 pounds. This would include commercial jets and most corporate jets.

Prohibition of departures toward the east from the east-west runway.

Arrivals are now divided about equally between the east-west and north-south runways. About 85% of departures from the airport are from the north-south runway.