Many of us have flown in or out of Burbank's Bob Hope Airport, picked up our luggage at the outside carousel, and thought, This place needs to be brought into the twenty-first century. Bob is an old fella, first built in the 1930s and then added to in the seventies. There have long been calls to update the main terminal, but they've been shelved for years. Now, the Los Angeles Business Journal reports (sub. req.) that a new survey finds 67% of respondents in Burbank, Pasadena, and Glendale--the cities that own Bob Hope--would support a new terminal (that is, after they were told told the terminal doesn't meet earthquake codes and part of the airport is more than 80 years old). The latest agreement between Burbank politicians and airport officials allows for discussion of a new terminal, but construction can't happen until 2015 (if nothing is figured out by then, the city could sell off the land where the terminal would likely be built). The new survey provides hope for a new terminal--and depending on how you look at it, it's either the worst or best time to take on such a project. It's been a rough ride at Burbank lately: the airport's traffic dropped 27% since 2007 and American Airlines, once running seven percent of flights at Bob Hope, just stopped flying there. Money is so tight at the airport that a planned transportation center has been scaled back. Unless more money starts rolling in, it's questionable whether a new terminal is feasible. But considering the current state of Bob Hope, it may need to think big to stay alive.
· Burbank Airport Project Gets Lift From Neighbors [LABJ, sub. req.]
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