Bob Hope Airport served more than 5.5 million passengers last year, a record number of passengers that airport officials attributed to the arrival of two new airlines and the continued growth in ridership aboard Southwest Airlines jets. The passenger total released Monday was an increase of 12% from the 4.9 million passengers that came through the Burbank airport in 2004. The start of flights by Delta Airlines in January and JetBlue in May were described by airport spokesman Victor Gill as “singular events” that are not indicative of any trend. “Both airlines had not been expected but they did bring incremental additions to our base of air travel,” airport spokesman Victor Gill said. For 2005, Delta Airlines served 89,800 with a daily flight to Atlanta, while low-cost carrier JetBlue served 227,000 passengers with four daily flights to New York City. Delta also partnered with SkyWest for a daily flight to Salt Lake City, a market that has not been served by the Burbank airport since 1994, to attract 98,400 passengers. Southwest Airlines saw an increase to 3.5 million passengers from 3.2 million from the previous year. “Southwest continues to improve its overall position with a good healthy increase of 5%,” Gill said. “That alone accounted for an additional 200,000 passengers.” Bob Hope Airport is also served by American Airlines, America West and United Airlines.
