BURBANK : Passenger Volume Hits New High at Airport

Passenger volume at Burbank’s airport reached a record 3.7 million during the 1990-91 fiscal year, despite a sluggish national economy, the Persian Gulf War and the loss of one of the airport’s longtime air carriers, according to a recently released annual report.

The number of passengers grew by 26% over the previous year’s 2.9 million--an increase that airport officials attribute partly to aggressive marketing, which included a major billboard campaign, and a takeoff in airline ticket sales sparked by the arrival of Southwest Airlines in April, 1990.

The increase in business signals a marked improvement for the airport--officially called the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport--which had struggled during fiscal 1989, reporting profits then of $1.9 million. The profits increased to $2.9 million in the 1990 fiscal year and reached $3.6 million in 1991.

By comparison, passenger volume at Los Angeles International Airport stayed relatively stable in the 1990-1991 fiscal year. The number of passengers using the facility dropped from 45.8 million the previous year to 45.6 million, according to LAX officials.