New United Flight Will Violate Curfew

Ignoring the voluntary 10 p.m. curfew, United Airlines has scheduled a new flight that will land at Burbank Airport about 11:15 p.m. nightly.

There are a few other regular flights that land in Burbank after the voluntary curfew, but the United flight from San Francisco will be the latest scheduled arrival, airport officials said Wednesday.

The flight is set to begin Oct. 31 and will be available six nights a week, officials said.

Last week, the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority asked United to rethink its decision to add the late-night flight.

“We urge you to reconsider adjusting your schedule to non-curfew hours as soon as possible,” wrote Randall D. Berg, director of the authority’s environmental and safety program, in an Oct. 11 letter to a United manager in Chicago.

“We feel that any measure of voluntary cooperation offered by the airline today will work in the airline’s favor in the long run,” Berg wrote.

He also underscored residents’ opposition to any late-night aircraft noise.

“The noise from every flight during the curfew hours affects many of our neighbors, and the Airport Authority will continue to encourage our airline partners to maintain respect for the curfew hours and the impact of flight operations on the ground,” Berg wrote.

For years, the Airport Authority urged airlines to comply with a voluntary curfew between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

But it cannot currently ban flights during those hours.

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United spokesman Joe Hopkins said the airline will consider the Airport Authority’s request to comply with the curfew.

“We are sensitive to the community’s needs and we are going to review it,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins noted that there are other flights scheduled to land at the airport after 10 p.m.

There are currently two from Southwest Airlines and one America West flight, according to airport spokesman Victor J. Gill said.

About 20 more flights a month break the voluntary late-night curfew because of delayed arrivals due to weather, mechanical or other problems, Gill said.

United now operates 13 flights a day between Burbank and San Francisco, Hopkins said.

“There is a demand to fly there,” he said, “or we wouldn’t operate the flight.”