Passenger tallies spiral at Bob Hope Airport
The number of passengers traveling through Bob Hope Airport dropped by almost 8.6% in October compared to a year earlier, continuing a downward spiral that’s plagued the airfield the prior four months and most of the year.
There were 314,808 passengers in October, an 8.58% decline compared to 344,348 passengers in October 2012, according to a report released by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday.
The October slide follows passenger declines of about 3.4%, 8.2%, 7.3% and 7.2%, in June, July, August and September, respectively. The first two months of the year saw double-digit drops in passengers.
The only two months this year that showed passenger increases were March, which saw an uptick of 0.27%, and May, when a 0.4% rise was reported.
So far this year, the airport has handled almost 3.19 million passengers, an almost 5.7% slide from a little more than 3.38 million the same period last year.
Denis Carvill, the airport’s director of contractors and properties, said passenger declines at Oakland Airport are affecting Bob Hope Airport.
“Oakland is, by far, our largest market out of here,” Carvill said, citing a recent article that stated Oakland has seen a 30% drop in passengers since 2007.
He added that 18.6% of the local airfield’s passengers travel to Oakland.
“That kind of loss by Oakland has a very large impact on our numbers,” Carvill said.
Like the passenger dynamic between Bob Hope Airport and Los Angeles International Airport, Oakland is near San Francisco International Airport. SFO has seen passengers numbers rise, particularly in international markets, Carvill said.
On a brighter note, Carvill said Delta is adding nonstop flights to Detroit and Atlanta the week before the college football bowl games that are going to be played in the Los Angeles area next month.
Carvill said he was pleased Delta didn’t just automatically decide to add flights to LAX.
“They’re actually looking at us and they’re figuring out we’re the closest airport to where the games are going to be and that’s where people want to go,” Carvill said. “It’s good news for us.”
Carvill also said Southwest recently announced it’s going to add another daily flight from Burbank to Denver.
Parking revenues continue to perform better than passenger tallies at Bob Hope Airport, coming in at almost $1.6 million and only $362 shy of what was budgeted. That translates into a 0.5% dip from a little more than $1.6 million in October 2012.
Looking at the number of passengers at other airports in the region, the changes varied widely. There were increases of 6.2% and 1.9% at LAX and John Wayne Airport, respectively. However, Ontario International Airport saw its number of passengers drop by 9% and Long Beach Airport reported a 7.4% decline.
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Follow Mark Kellam on Twitter: @LAMarkKellam.
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