Bob Hope Airport

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Coordinates: 34°12′02″N 118°21′31″W / 34.20056, -118.35861

Bob Hope Airport


FAA airport diagram
IATA: BUR – ICAO: KBUR – FAA: BUR
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority
Location Burbank, California
Elevation AMSL 778 ft / 237 m
Website www.BobHopeAirport.com
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
15/33 6,886 2,099 Asphalt
8/26 5,801 1,768 Asphalt
Statistics (2006)
Aircraft operations 130,849
Based aircraft 108
Source: FAA[1], airport website[2]

Bob Hope Airport (IATA: BUR, ICAO: KBUR, FAA LID: BUR) is a public airport located three miles (5 km) northwest of the central business district of Burbank, a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States.[1] It was formerly known as United Airport (1930-1934); Union Air Terminal (1934-1940); Lockheed Air Terminal (1940-1967); Hollywood-Burbank Airport (1967-1978); and most recently Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport (1978-2003).

The airport serves the Los Angeles area including Glendale, Pasadena, and the San Fernando Valley. It is also closer to Griffith Park and Hollywood than is Los Angeles International Airport. Non-stop flights from the airport go mostly to destinations within the western United States but service also includes Dallas/Fort Worth, Columbus, and New York City. The airport covers 610 acres (2.5 km²) and has two runways. The west end of Runway 8/26 actually stretches into the City of Los Angeles.

The airport is owned by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, which is controlled by the governments of the three cities in its name.

The airport maintains its own police department (Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority Police), separate of the Burbank Police Department. The department is made of 34 sworn officers, five sergeants, two lieutenants, and the chief of police.

The Bob Hope Airport Train Station, just south of the airport, is served by Amtrak and Metrolink.

BUR has public Wi-Fi provided by both AT&T and T-Mobile.

Boarding is by using airstairs or ramps rather than jetways, unlike most major airports.

Contents

In the late 1920s the United States Department of Commerce recommended Burbank as the most favorable airport location in the Los Angeles area. Construction thus began on a facility, built by United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, a large conglomerate and former parent of the The Boeing Company and United Airlines. Named United Airport and dedicated amid much festivity (including an air show) on Memorial Day Weekend (May 30 - June 1), 1930, the facility was the primary and largest commercial airport in the Los Angeles region until it was eclipsed in 1946 by the Los Angeles Municipal Airport in Westchester when that facility (the former Mines Field) commenced commercial operations. Nevertheless, upon its opening, Burbank's United Airport quickly proved to be a state-of-the-art facility and a showy new competitor to the nearby Grand Central Airport in neighboring Glendale.

The Burbank facility remained named United Airport until 1934, when it was renamed Union Air Terminal. The name change came the same year that Federal anti-trust actions caused United Aircraft And Transport Corp. to dissolve, which took effect September 26, 1934. The Union Air Terminal moniker stuck for six years, until Lockheed bought the airport in 1940.

Lockheed immediately renamed the property the Lockheed Air Terminal. Commercial air traffic continued even while Lockheed's extensive aircraft-manufacturing facilities at the airport supplied the war effort and developed numerous military and commercial aircraft in the ensuing war years and into the mid-1960s.

In 1966, the airport was dealt a temporary setback when, at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 13, a fire broke out in a greasy flue in the kitchen of the terminal building's second-floor restaurant, The Sky Room. The blaze, fanned by gusty winds, spread throughout the terminal building and also consumed the attached control tower. Controllers in the tower at the time of the fire were able to escape to safety by descending on an aerial ladder, and air traffic was diverted to nearby Van Nuys Airport and Los Angeles International Airport for several hours. The fire, contained by firefighters by about 6:30 p.m., caused an estimated $2 million in damages to the terminal, tower, and electronic equipment in the tower. No injuries were reported.

Surprisingly, Lockheed officials declared that the airport would reopen the next day, and it did -- using electronic equipment borrowed from LAX that was set up in a nearby hangar. The hangar also served as the airport's temporary passenger terminal and baggage claim area. The gutted terminal and tower were rebuilt and reopened the following year.

In 1967, Lockheed, aiming at attracting more business, rechristened the facility with the more glamorous-sounding name of Hollywood-Burbank Airport.

It remained Hollywood-Burbank Airport for over a decade, until 1978, when Lockheed sold the facility and the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority took over operations. At that time, the airport acquired its fifth name: Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport (1978-2003).

On November 11, 2003, the airport authority voted to change the airport's name to Bob Hope Airport in honor of comedian Bob Hope, a longtime resident of nearby Toluca Lake, who had died earlier in the year and who had kept his personal airplane at the airfield. The new name was unveiled on December 17, 2003 on the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903, the year that Bob Hope was born.

Numerous attempts to expand safety buffer zones and add increased runway length has drawn a considerable amount of negative feedback from the airport’s closest residents, citing disturbances from increased noise pollution as a serious nuisance. Expansion space around the airport is virtually non-existent due to the encroachment of the surrounding city, leaving the unlikely option of aggressive land acquisition almost entirely out of reach.

BUR is also noted by aircraft spotters as being easily accessible for pleasure viewing of commercial aircraft without the common drawback of disturbing business and other airport functions/facilities.

In 2005, the airport celebrated its 75th anniversary. In 2006, it served 5,689,291 travelers on seven major carriers, with more than 70 flights daily.

After much controversy and debate between the Airport Authority, the City of Burbank, the Transportation Security Administration, and Burbank residents, in November 2007 it was decided that a new $8- to $10-million baggage screening facility for Terminal B is legal, considering the anti-growth limitations placed on the airport. The facility will house a $2.5-million Explosive Detection System, used for the automatic detection of explosives within checked luggage. However, the facility is still in the early planning phases, and may be vetoed if the residents of Burbank rally against it.[3]

Bob Hope Airport covers an area of 610 acres (247 ha) which contains two asphalt paved runways: 15/33 measuring 6,886 x 150 ft. (2,099 x 46 m) and 8/26 measuring 5,801 x 150 ft. (1,768 x 46 m).[1] Commercial aircraft generally take off on Runway 15 and land on Runway 8 with ILS.

For the 12-month period ending October 31, 2006, the airport had 130,849 aircraft operations, an average of 358 per day: 52% scheduled commercial, 31% general aviation, 16% air taxi and <1% military. There are 108 aircraft based at this airport: 47% jet, 28% single-engine, 19% multi-engine and 6% helicopter.[1]

Bob Hope Airport has two terminals, "A" and "B," which are joined together as part of the same building.

In 2002, Terminal A was renovated and expanded. Plans existed for years to expand the airport with a new passenger terminal north of the existing one, but these plans have been scrapped due to significant opposition from the Burbank City Council and local groups.

A 2004 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) report cited the need for expansion at this airport, but for now this seems impossible due to agreed upon restrictions of the size and number of gates. The current passenger terminal is too close to the runways according to current safety standards but is grandfathered in because of its age.

Bob Hope Airport was initially built for smaller aircraft; as a consequence, the airport has one of the smallest commercially-used runways in the United States. The result is a challenging landing for even the most experienced pilots. Aircraft arriving on Runway 8 must turn off onto the ramp area by the JetBlue gate before completely stopping their landing roll.

  • On March 5, 2000, Southwest Airlines Flight 1455, upon landing on Runway 8 at Burbank following a flight from Las Vegas, overran the runway, injuring 43. The Boeing 737 crashed through a metal blast barrier at the end of the runway, then an airport perimeter fence, and came to rest in the traffic lanes of Hollywood Way, a main north-south thoroughfare. The plane stopped close to a Chevron gasoline station located across the street from the runway. The incident resulted in the dismissal of the pilots. The Chevron gasoline station was subsequently closed and removed due to safety concerns.
  • On September 21, 2005, JetBlue Airways Flight 292, took off from Burbank and the front wheel of the aircraft failed to retract and instead jammed at a 90 degree angle perpendicular to the direction the wheels normally face. The aircraft spent several hours in the air before safely making an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport, with 140 passengers and 6 crew members aboard. After the aircraft took off, the incident was quickly captured by news helicopters which ran feed that was shown live nationally on cable news. Notably, many passengers on the flight said they watched images of their own aircraft on JetBlue's LiveTV system.
  • On October 13, 2006, a Gulfstream jet overran the runway upon landing. There were no reported injuries amongst the five passengers and two crew members. New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez was on board, on his way to attend the funeral of fellow teammate Cory Lidle. Rodriguez was uninjured, but the accident happened two days after the fatal plane crash of his teammate.

The airport has been used as a filming location for projects including:

  • The 1988 music video for In My Darkest Hour, a song by Megadeth. Many Southern California metal fans were on hand after hearing an advertising campaign on now-defunct radio station KNAC. The film shoot turned rowdy, with fans spray-painting planes on the tarmac and leaving broken bottles on the runway.

  1. ^ a b c d FAA Airport Master Record for BUR (Form 5010 PDF), effective 2007-10-25
  2. ^ Bob Hope Airport (official site)
  3. ^ Oberstein, J: "Firm approves new screening facility", Burbank Leader, November 6, 2007. Accessed November 19, 2007.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hope_Airport"
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