Burbank Airport

Lori Dinkin is wrong when she says “commercial jet flights have tripled since 1978 public ownership” of Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport (“Burbank Airport Expansion,” Letters to the Valley Edition, Jan. 4). The factual record shows they have not even doubled. What’s more, overall aircraft activity has gone down by a hefty 37% in the past 20 years, something Dinkin would rather that Times readers not hear about.

In 1978, there were 34,395 airline jet flights, half of them landings and half of them takeoffs. In 1996, there were 59,156, and through November 1997--the latest data available--we’re running about 1% behind the 1996 pace. To show how far off the mark Dinkin is, there would have to be 103,185 airline operations for her statement to be accurate, an error of 44,000 flights!

In the big picture, there has actually been a tremendous reduction in total aircraft operations at Burbank in the same time period. The busiest year ever for Burbank Airport in modern times was 1978, when there were 293,810 operations. In 1996 we had only 184,803, and 1997 will come in below that figure.

No one is saying that jet noise at Burbank is not an issue. It is, and we should all be trying to find the best approach to the problem. But letting Dinkin make blatant misstatements and portray this airport as a runaway behemoth when it is in fact modest, efficient and well ahead of the majority of airports in the country in reducing noise does not serve the public debate.

VICTOR J. GILL

Director, Public Affairs and

Communications, Burbank Airport

* I am often embarrassed to explain to people who inquire about my home community of Valley Village that, no, it is not some secluded woodsy enclave but a designation imposed upon the City Council by Realtors hoping to distinguish it from less affluent, more culturally diverse areas of North Hollywood.

More embarrassing are the whining Burbank Airport-noise letters from Valley Villagers that The Times seems compelled to publish with boring regularity.

It pleases me that my community contributes to travel and commerce. All this contributes to my sleeping very peacefully in my patio in summer and relaxing in my home, only occasionally noting the drone of powerful engines thousands of feet above me.

JOHN A. DONNELLY

Valley Village