Burbank Airport Authority Considers $3 Fee for Passengers : Aviation: The charge could raise $6 million a year for construction of a new terminal, a commissioner says.

Burbank Airport officials are considering imposing a $3 fee on departing air passengers to raise money for construction of a new terminal, airport officials said Friday.

Such a fee, called a passenger facility charge, could raise as much as $6 million annually, Burbank Airport Authority Commissioner Brian B. Bowman said following a workshop on future airport development.

Bowman, who is also a Burbank city councilman, said the airport authority could sell bonds to buy land for the new terminal and pay off the bond issue with the facility charge.

He said the airport authority would discuss the fee and other ways to increase revenue after the terminal design is selected next month.

The passenger fee was one of several issues connected to construction of a new terminal discussed in the meeting at the Red Lion Hotel in Glendale. The workshop is scheduled to continue today beginning at 8 a.m.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires that passenger facility fees be used only for airport improvements designed for passenger use. Similar fees, ranging from $1 to $3, are collected at airports in such cities as Las Vegas, Denver, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Memphis, Tenn., and Tulsa, Okla.

Officials of the Los Angeles Department of Airports have already requested approval from the FAA to charge a $3 fee at Los Angeles International Airport beginning in July. The revenues at LAX are earmarked for ground transportation projects, noise mitigation measures and a new terminal at Ontario Airport.

The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority is expected to adopt an environmental study for the new airport terminal March 22 and soon after decide on the exact size and design of the facility.

Several airport officials have said they favor a plan for a two-level, 670,000-square-foot facility on about 140 acres on the northeast boundary of the airport. The new facility would accommodate the 5.4 million passengers expected to use the airport annually by 1998, according to the environmental report on the terminal expansion.

The new terminal has been in the planning phase since 1980, when the FAA began to pressure airport officials to replace the present building, opened in 1930, because it is closer to the runways than modern safety regulations allow.

The strategic planning meeting included discussion on how airport officials would set priorities to deal with other elements of developing the new terminal, including designing the facility to connect with a new rail line, purchasing airport property, improving public relations and attracting new airlines.