Hollywood Burbank Airport sees spike in passenger numbers
The local rainstorms may have put a damper on Hollywood Burbank Airport’s February passenger numbers, but additional flights helped boost the airfield’s statistics in a positive direction in March.
The airport reported 382,245 passengers in March, which was 43,911, or 13%, more than during the same month in 2016. The sizable hike was attributed to Southwest Airlines offering flights to Salt Lake City, Alaska Airlines starting service to San Jose and the airfield tallying the first full month of United Airlines’ service to San Francisco, said Mark Hardyment, the airport’s director of government and environmental affairs during a meeting of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday.
“So that additional capacity translated into a dramatically increased number of seats available and also corresponded to a very nice increase in passengers,” he said.
Southwest, which is the largest airline at Hollywood Burbank, improved the most out of those operating at the airport. The airline reported 283,654 passengers in March, which was 32,770 more than the previous year. United also reported an improvement, with 37,314 passengers for the month, a bump of 6,332 from last year.
Delta Air Lines had a modest rise, reporting 9,985 passengers for the month, or 2,692 more than in 2016. American Airlines showed some growth — 14,868 passengers, or 1,219 more than last year. Alaska had 38,373 passengers during March, a slight improvement of 1,063 over the previous year.
JetBlue Airways was the only operator which had relatively flat numbers in March, reporting 8,051 passengers, which was 165 fewer than in 2016.
Parking revenue at the airport is on the rise as it made about $1.7 million from its parking lots, parking structure and valet service. About $1.3 million was collected from the lots and valet, while $380,658 was generated by the parking structure, said Mary Tromp, the airport’s parking manager.
Money made from ride-sharing drop-offs and pick-ups continues to bolster the airport’s parking revenue. Drop-offs brought in $90,993, while pick-ups generated $74,154, Tromp said.
anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
