Hollywood Burbank Airport sees sizable jump in August travelers
A Southwest Airlines plane takes off from Bob Hope Airport, now known as Hollywood Burbank Airport, in this file photo taken on Thursday, July 19, 2012. In August, the airfield saw a 7.4% increase in passengers from the previous year.
Hollywood Burbank Airport officials have been seeing the number of passengers traveling through their terminals slowly exceed projected numbers. However, August performed much better than anyone had predicted — a 7.4% hike from the previous year.
The airfield reported 367,527 passengers in August, which was 25,432 more than in 2015 and 22,011 more than what officials had projected, said Mark Hardyment, the airport’s director of governmental and environmental affairs during a meeting of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday.
August’s numbers were the best the airport has seen this year and marks the fourth month in a row that passenger numbers were better than the previous year and officials’ expectations.
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The biggest contributor to the upward spike in passenger numbers was Southwest Airlines, which reported 271,033 passengers, or about 10.1% more than the previous year. Alaska Airlines also had a positive showing, tallying 43,055 passengers, or a 10% boost over 2015’s numbers.
United Airlines had 24,368 passengers fly in August, about a 14.2% increase compared to last year. Delta Air Lines’ numbers have continued to increase during the past months, reporting 8,417 passengers in August, which was about an 18.5% jump from the previous year.
American Airlines continues to see its passenger numbers drop, reporting 12,343 passengers in August, a 33.5% decrease from the same time a year ago.
JetBlue Airways remained relatively flat in August, with 8,311 passengers, just 58 people less than the year before.
As passenger numbers were up in August, so were the airport’s parking revenues. Mary Tromp, the authority’s parking manager, said the airfield generated $1,679,209, a 3.9% increase over the previous year.
The major contributor to the boost in revenue was a 56% increase in transactions at the parking structure, which is attributed to more ride-sharing drivers picking up passengers at that location, Tromp said.
Tromp added that there was a 112% increase in $3 transactions in the parking structure due to ride-sharing drivers having to pay a fee to pick up passengers.
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Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
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