7 Million Will Use Airport by the Year 2000, Study Says

Assuming that the capacity exists to handle the traffic, the number of airline customers using the Burbank Airport each year will double to more than 3 million by 1990 and continue rising to almost 7 million by 2000, according to a new study.

Over the last 10 years, use of the airport has risen gradually from about 800,000 passengers a year in 1975 to 1.5 million a year.

The primary causes for increased demand are population growth and economic expansion in several “urban villages” such as Universal City and Warner Center and the development of new, longer-range aircraft that can use the airport’s existing runways, George Sarames, an analyst for Lockheed Air Terminal, told the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority Thursday night.

Tied to Building Plans

The forecast was prepared under contract by Lockheed Air Terminal, the firm that manages the airport, as part of the planning for a new passenger terminal to be built in the next three to five years, airport spokesman Victor Gill said.

The airport is under Federal Aviation Administration orders to replace its 56-year-old terminal building, which is closer to the runways than allowed by FAA regulations.

The next step in designing the new terminal will be for the authority to decide how large it should be, Gill said.

At Thursday’s meeting, leaders of several East Valley homeowner associations branded the forecast as a device to support a dramatic enlargement of the terminal.

Homeowners “believe that demand for the Burbank Airport is not relevant,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. “Because of the noise and safety problems, a new passenger terminal must not be larger than the existing facility.”

Homeowner Complaint

Other homeowners criticized the forecast for failing to equate the rise in demand to the number of aircraft flights.

Tom Patterson, president of the North Hollywood Homeowners Assn., said that homeowners consider the number of flights to be the primary measure of the airport’s noise problem.

Lockheed’s Sarames told the authority that it is difficult to estimate the number of flights needed to accommodate the projected demand because the type of aircraft and destination of those flights cannot be predicted.

However, pressed by Commissioner Brian Bowman, airport officials said they would attempt to estimate, based on average passenger loads, the demand in terms of flights.

Airport commissioners did not discuss their views on how large the terminal building should be, but after the meeting authority President Robert W. Garcin said he assumes that the new terminal will be larger than the existing one.