Airports
Burbank has only its one airport that services also Glendale and Pasadena. The Bob Hope Airport was named after the legendary entertainer in December of 2003. Every year more than five million passengers are served by the Bob Hope airport and is thus an important part of the Southern California airport system.
Starting out as United Airport, it first opened on Memorial Day weekend of 1930. One of the argest airports in the United States at the time, it has been said that it is the first multi-million dollar airport in the country. The Airport was built by the United Airpots Company of California Ltd. and has become the main airport serving the greater Los Angeles area. The airport was frequented by a number of aviation personalities, with most being connected with the nearby Lockheed Aircraft Company at the time. Among the aviation illuminaries that graced the airport was Amelia Earhart, Wiley Post and the famous Charles Lindbergh.
When war was imminent in 1940, the Lockheed Company bought the airport to expand its production facilities to help support in the war effort. The land along the airport’s runways was used to further Lockheed’s production and the airport was renamed as Lockheed Air Terminal. Even though the airport was used primarily as a part of the assembly lines where newly finished B-17s, Hudson Bombers and P-38 fighters rolled off, it was still used as a commercial airport then. After the war, almost all the air carriers shifted service to Los Angeles Municipal Airport or more popularly known as LAX, but Burbank’s airport would soon see it’s old glory returned when jet liners able to use short runways came in the 1960’s, thus making the airport a convenient place to land for flights to the Bay Area.
1978 saw the airport changing hands once again when the Lockheed Aircraft Company sold it to an airport authority created by Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena. Residents in this area and within a 15 mile radius attracted airline services to use the Burbank Airport once again and has serviced Denver and non-stop flights to New York even. The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport has once again regained its old glory albeit to a lesser extent, and as mentioned earlier in 2003, it was renamed the Bob Hope Airport in memory of America’s Greatest Performer.
