"Burbank airport traffic climbs nearly 4 percent"

Friday, February 4, 2005

Bob Hope Airport traffic climbs nearly 4 percent
By Naush Boghossian
The Los Angeles (CA) Daily News


BURBANK-- Passenger traffic at the Bob Hope Airport rose nearly 4 percent in
2004 from the year before, indicating that the reverberations from the 9-11
terrorist attacks have pretty much subsided, officials said Thursday.

In 2004, 4.9 million passengers used the airport, compared with 4.7 million
the previous year. Last year's number falls about 56,000 short of the total
recorded in 1995, the airport's peak year.

"This is not the highest year we've ever had, but it's close to it. It's a
strong year for sure," said airport spokesman Victor Gill. 

"For the past 10 years we have operated at a very steady, narrow range,
fluctuating between 4.5 and 4.9 million, so it's a very consistent
performance, and certainly it shows that we have recovered from the losses
we've suffered from 9-11." 

Airline travel plummeted in the months after the terrorist attacks on Sept.
11, 2001, and the year ended with about 4.5 million passengers, Gill said.
The number ticked up in 2002 to 4.6 million.

The local airport specializes in flights to the Bay Area, Portland, Seattle,
Las Vegas and Phoenix.

The increase in passengers comes as no surprise, said Charles Lombardo,
president of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Commission.

"Air traffic is coming back," he said. "The (San Fernando) Valley economy is
definitely strengthening and as a result of that, we're getting the normal
rate of growth one would expect from that kind of rebounding of the
economy."


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