Commissioners to Vote on Airport Curfew : Burbank: A mandatory ban is considered for all flights from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. It would replace voluntary restrictions.

Burbank Airport commissioners will vote today on a plan to take the first step toward imposing a mandatory curfew on all flights from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., a move welcomed by nearby residents who have long complained about aircraft noise.

The vote to be held at 5 p.m. in the airport’s Skyroom was proposed by William Paparian, a Burbank Airport commissioner and mayor of Pasadena, who says he wants to replace the airport’s voluntary curfew on commercial flights with an enforceable one during those hours.

“The curfew issue is an important statement of principles to the community we’re serving,” Paparian said Wednesday. “I think it’s important we’re not going to have planes departing before 7 a.m.”

Despite the voluntary curfew, seven commercial airplanes are scheduled to land at Burbank Airport from 10 p.m. to 12:15 a.m. each weeknight, and six others depart between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m.

Those planes are operated by Alaska, Southwest, United, America West and Skywest airlines, an airport spokesman said, adding that Burbank serves a daily average of 180 arriving and departing commercial flights.

Supporting Paparian’s call for a stiffer curfew are Burbank Mayor Dave Golonski and airport commissioners Margie A. Gee and Philip E. Berlin, two of the city’s new representatives to the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, which oversees the airport’s operations.

Gee and Berlin say they also want a new lawyer for the Airport Authority who could get the proposed curfew approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Both expressed dissatisfaction with a June 15 report given to the board by attorney Richard Simon, who concluded that the FAA’s approval would be nearly impossible to obtain and expensive--more than $100,000 to complete the application and studies required under federal law.

“He’s painted a negative and bleak picture when the process allows the opportunity to apply for a mandatory curfew,” Berlin said. “From my point of view, it is not a guaranteed loser or winner. We’d be remiss if we didn’t try.

“The FAA has not, in any of its discussions, painted as negative a picture as people on the Airport Authority and Mr. Simon have on curfew issues.”

FAA spokesman Fred O’Donnell said his agency is willing to approve of any curfews on airports so long as it does not discriminate against particular types of aircraft, such as commercial jets or general aviation planes, during certain hours of the day or night.

“There are curfews currently in place at a number of airports right in our own back yard--John Wayne, Long Beach, San Jose and Santa Monica--where the airports close down at night,” O’Donnell said. “I don’t see that as an issue.

“Every airport that receives federal funds is required to provide access to all users on a fair and equitable basis.”

Federal legislation enacted in 1990 prohibits airport operators nationwide from imposing new restrictions on the operations of commercial aircraft without approval from the FAA.

O’Donnell said airports in Orange County, San Jose, Santa Monica and Long Beach began imposing their own curfews before the 1990 law took effect. He added that he did not know for sure how many airports had sought or obtained approval from the FAA for curfews since then.