Burbank Airport Officials Seek Cure for Its Chronic Jet Lag
In 1985, when Host International signed up to operate restaurants at the Burbank airport, officials thought that traffic at the airport would continue climbing gradually, as it had in previous years. After all, air travel was up nationwide, the population in the San Fernando Valley was growing rapidly and the local economy was strong.
But it’s a measure of the bad times at the airport that Host International has been losing money at Burbank, and airport officials recently agreed to cut the minimum fee Host pays the airport authority by 38% to $800,000 a year.
When Host first negotiated its contract with Burbank, the fee was based on the number of enplanements--or people getting on planes--and an increase was projected each year. Since then, “enplanements have dropped off dramatically,” said Gary Lindstrom, a Host International spokesman.
Of the five major airports serving the Los Angeles area, only the 60-year-old Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport (that’s the official name) saw a decline in traffic last year, to 2.7 million passengers from 3 million in 1988 and a peak of 3.2 million in 1987.
The drop in business was mostly due to the wave of mergers and acquisitions in the airline industry, which resulted in a cutback in many short, regional flights--the bread and butter of Burbank airport.
Many of the remaining airlines have cut back their shorter flights in favor of higher-priced, long-haul trips out of regional airports, and are offering slightly lower prices for flights out of major airports like Los Angeles International.
When Alaska Airlines acquired Jet America in 1986, it reduced its intra-California business. And in 1987, when American Airlines purchased AirCal, American cut service at Burbank. The following year, PSA, formerly Burbank’s biggest carrier, was merged into USAir and USAir reduced its Burbank flights. Continental Airlines dropped the airport completely last year.
In 1986, 11 airlines flew out of Burbank; today there are only seven. About 60 flights a day leave the airport, compared to a peak of more than 80 a few years ago.
In the fiscal year that ended June 30, the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, which owns the airport, reported a 2% gain in revenues to $14.8 million. But net income fell to $1.9 million, down 10% from the previous year and 29% from fiscal 1987.
Despite the problems, some Burbank airport authorities and local business leaders are upbeat. On April 16, the low-cost, no-frills air carrier Southwest Airlines will start 10 daily flights there to and from Oakland and six more flights to an unnamed location outside California.
“It’s going to give some new life to the airport,” said Zoe Taylor, executive director of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce. “It’s going to be a tremendous boost to the economy,” said Richard Messer, general manager of the Burbank Airport Hilton.
Southwest estimates that its Burbank flights will bring 350,000 additional passengers to the airport in the coming year. Those passengers will generate between $600,000 and $700,000 a year in direct revenue for the airport--from such things as landing and gate fees--plus an unknown amount of “indirect” revenue from money they spend while they’re at the airport, said Elly Mixsell, an airport spokeswoman.
“Everyone that deplanes in Burbank is going to spend some money in Burbank,” Messer said.
The success of Southwest is crucial to the long-term prospects of the airport because a large increase in passenger levels is needed to help the airport raise enough money to carry out its long-delayed plans to build a new terminal. The Federal Aviation Administration has pressured Burbank for many years to build a new terminal because the old one is too close to runways to meet modern safety standards, and there are concerns that a plane making a wayward landing or takeoff could crash into a row of parked planes or the terminal itself.
But land and construction costs for the new terminal are expected to hit $250 million, said Tom Greer, Burbank’s director of airport services. That would boost the number of gates to 18 from 13 in the existing terminal, according to preliminary plans, but Greer said the airport must double its current passenger level to raise the necessary cash and sponsor a bond issue to pay for the new terminal.
Greer insisted it has to be done so the airport can comply with FAA standards. He said between 2 million and 3 million people who live close to the Burbank airport drive to LAX each year. By offering more flights and through aggressive marketing, he hopes to lure them to Burbank.
“If we don’t get the passengers, we don’t get the terminal,” he said.
Will Southwest be enough to resuscitate the Burbank airport?
Roy Fyffe, manager of National Car Rental in Burbank, was skeptical. “Burbank has been here too long,” Fyffe said. “If it was going to happen, it would have already happened.”
Even if Southwest boosts activity at Burbank, it wouldn’t necessarily be a clear-cut win for all businesses. Travel agents, for instance, work on commission and don’t have as much incentive to sell Southwest’s cheap tickets.
But many local businesses expect to get a boost from Southwest. Julia Parmann predicted that the Avis car rental business she manages at the airport will get 30 more car rentals a day, while Budget’s rental car office, about a half mile from the airport, is considering a move to the airport. Jim Watson, vice president of sales and marketing for Super Shuttle--an airport van service--thinks he’ll see a 15% increase in business at the airport.
Greer placed much of the blame for the slowdown at Burbank on the airport authority itself. In recent years, he said, the airport has concerned itself more with community relations and trying to calm local residents who complained about jet noise.
“Whenever an airline reduced service, we just sat back,” Greer said. But now, he contends, the airport authority is taking an aggressive stance to try to attract new airlines to the airport and marketing the airport to the public. Southwest is just the start of that, he said.
Southwest already has between 10,000 and 12,000 reservations for its Burbank-Oakland flights, said David Brown, a Southwest spokesman. “All indications are it’s going to be a very successful airport for us,” he said.
Southwest’s top price for a one-way ticket to Oakland will be $59 and some advance-reservation tickets will go as low as $29. Other airlines charge a basic coach fare of $186. Already, though, USAir has said it plans to offer lower fares to Oakland beginning April 1, including a $59 one-way ticket. United recently announced it would start three flights a day between Burbank and Oakland on May 1.
The Burbank airport was carved out of farm land in 1930 by the company that later became United Airlines. In 1940, the airport was sold to Lockheed Aircraft Co. and was used to test and service aircraft, and for commercial and military flights. During World War II, the airfield and airport buildings were camouflaged to look like open fields and houses in case enemy aircraft flew overhead.
After the war, the Burbank airport was quickly supplanted in size and prominence by Los Angeles International, which thrived by servicing national and international flights. In 1978, the cities of Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena, represented by the airport authority, bought the Burbank airport from Lockheed. However, the airport is still managed by a Lockheed subsidiary, and Lockheed’s “Skunk Works,” a secret facility where many military and other airplanes have been developed, is still adjacent to the airport.
Today, Burbank is a commuter airport, serving mostly business travelers from the local entertainment and aerospace industries and weekend pleasure travelers. The airport looks much as it did in its early days. The original terminal and the centerpiece control tower remain and passengers still board planes by walking out from the terminal and climbing up mobile stairs.
Deplaning passengers pick up their suitcases from a baggage claim area located on the sidewalk just outside the main terminal--a far cry from the frenzied scenes at LAX.
Weekday mornings and late afternoons are peak hours at the Burbank airport--much like freeway rush-hour traffic. But between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m., the airport falls silent, as the airliners observe a voluntary curfew on flights.
