Airline to adjust some early flights

Ben Godar

In response to letters by the City Council and officials at the

Burbank- Glendale-Pasadena Airport, United Airlines plans to cancel

or delay flights to comply with the voluntary curfew at the airport

on Sundays.

City and airport officials sent letters to the airline in July

asking that it eliminate a 6:40 a.m. Sunday flight to San Francisco.

In a response received by Airport Authority commis- sioners Monday,

United scheduling manager Sheila Wiedemann said the carrier would

eliminate the early Sunday flight effective on its September

schedule.

Wiedemann said in the letter that because of high demand, United

would continue to offer a flight to San Francisco at 6:46 a.m.

Monday through Saturday. However, that is the time the plane is

scheduled to push back from the gate, and she said with an average

taxi time of 11 minutes the flight would be taking off very near to 7

a.m.

While Airport Authority President Charles Lombardo said he was

glad United responded to concerns expressed by city and airport

officials, he is not satisfied with the proposed changes. He said

data supplied by United shows that the carrier could adhere to the

Monday through Saturday curfew and still meet its stated goal of

allowing at least 45 minutes between all connecting flights.

“We feel they could move that flight to 7 a.m. and still make

their connecting flights,” he said.

The commissioners also discussed a recent proposal to rename the

airport for late entertainer Bob Hope. Former mayor Michael Hastings

read the commissioners a statement from longtime Hope publicist Ward

Grant in support of the proposal.

The commissioners appointed an ad hoc committee consisting of

Commissioners Don Brown of Burbank, Carl Povilaitis of Glendale and

Joyce Streator of Pasadena to investigate the proposed change,

spokesman Victor Gill said.

The committee will look at possible expenses that would result

from a name change, including things like replacing signs, he said.

“They were mostly concerned about getting specifics about what the

process is,” Gill said. “Certainly the comments that were made were

favorable.”

Lombardo said the commissioners want to be sure to “dot the i’s

and cross the t’s” before beginning the process.

“It’s like anybody changing their name, there’s a lot of things to

be considered,” he said.