Airport at odds with SCAG report
Ryan Carter
Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport officials are taking exception to a
report by the Southern California Assn. of Governments that predicts
passenger demand at the airport will exceed 10 million annually by
2030.
“In general, the Authority believes that the forecast of 10.7
million annual passengers at Burbank Airport in 2030 significantly
overstates the passenger handling capacity of this facility,” wrote
Authority Executive Director Dios Marrero in a letter to Michael
Armstrong, the association’s lead regional planner.
The 2004 Regional Trans- portation Plan, released last month,
projects population demands on cities in Southern California and how
they will affect services. Agencies use the report for planning
purposes. Marrero finds fault with the forecast because it is based
on the use of Boeing 757 airplanes that seat more people than the
airport can handle, and which do not generally fly into the facility.
“These increased levels of activity by both general aviation and
commercial air carriers would exceed the airspace capacity and
runway/taxiway capacity at Burbank Airport, making such levels
unrealistic.”
Marrero said assumptions made in the report would force air
carriers to implement service throughout the day, even during times
where no service exists.
“Not only is it a stretch, but it’s probably not achievable,” said
Burbank Airport Commis- sioner Charley Lombardo, reacting to how the
airport could meet the demand of more than 10 million passengers a
year.
An Authority-sponsored projection two years ago found that
passenger traffic would increase from about 5 million a year to 7.2
million by 2015, airport spokesman Victor Gill said.
But the association’s forecast was simply a draft and meant to
gather input, association officials said.
“There appears to be a misunderstanding on the authority’s part
that the 757s would play a major role in Burbank’s future fleet mix,”
said Jeff Lustgarten, a spokesman for the association. “These
projections are not made on that assumption.”
He said the projections come from various factors, including
airline fleet mixes. The goal of the report, which will be made final
in April, was to forecast a regionwide picture of increased airport
demand throughout Southern California, Lustgarten said, adding that
Authority officials sit on a task force that reviewed the date.