BURBANK : Free Seniors Flights to Be Offered Locally

An airline program offering free holiday plane trips to senior citizens has been expanded to Burbank Airport.

Southwest Airlines, which has run a “Home for the Holidays” program since 1979, plans to send 25 seniors on trips from Los Angeles International Airport, and 15 more from Burbank and Ontario airports.

Would-be travelers who are 65 or older can pick up an application at the Joslyn Adult Center at 1301 W. Olive Ave. in Burbank.

Applicants must show that they have a strong economic need.

Applications are also available through the Los Angeles Department of Aging at 600 S. Spring St., Suite 900, and at sites in Ontario, Chino, Montclair, Rancho Cucamonga, Claremont, San Bernardino and San Dimas.

The program, which then-President Ronald Reagan honored in 1986 as an outstanding community service, has been responsible for some dramatic reunions.

One 98-year-old Los Angeles-area woman flew back to Texas to see her younger sister for the first time in 20 years.

A Los Angeles man was able to visit a former girlfriend one last time, Margaret Shannon said.

“A lot of time they will travel back East, or to the Midwest, Chicago or St. Louis, where it costs more money to get there,” Shannon said. “A lot of older people are on budgets and trying to live within their means.”

Shannon said the airline received a thank-you note from a Reseda man who flew to Tulsa, Okla. to see his daughter last year and from a Los Angeles woman who flew from Burbank to Chicago and then rode a bus to Wisconsin to see two of her children.

Married couples can apply for the committee to consider them both. Otherwise, one application per person is accepted.

No ground transportation or other expenses are paid for. Those accepted will be able to fly between Dec. 6 and Jan. 13. The application deadline is Oct. 29.