Burbank Airport to Expand Cramped Passenger Lounge Area : Travel: Officials say the project to add 186 seats in the terminal that serves American, Delta and SkyWest will cost $339,000 but won’t raise ticket prices.

Burbank Airport, where passenger traffic jumped nearly 30% last year, will spend $339,000 to expand a waiting room in which travelers and family members often must stand while awaiting flights, officials said Monday.

The airport will add 186 seats in a passenger lounge that serves American, Delta and SkyWest airlines, said Wes Guarino, manager of administration and finance for the airport. The waiting room now has 150 seats.

The waiting room to be expanded is in Terminal A at the east end of the concourse. The lounge serves two gates, while other waiting areas serve only one each, Guarino said.

“At any given time, there can be 300 or 400 people down there. . . . People are like sardines down there,” said Joe Conlon, general manager for American Airlines at the airport.

SkyWest has 14 daily flights from Burbank Airport, American has 10 and Delta has two, officials said.

Although passengers will experience less crowding, they will not experience higher ticket prices as a result of the expansion, Guarino and Conlon said.

The price tag for the project will be split among the eight carriers at the airport and can be absorbed without fare hikes, they said.

The airport handled 3.5 million passengers last year, a 29.6% increase over the 2.7 million who used it in 1989, Guarino said.

Also Monday, airport directors earmarked $1.8 million as a deposit on land needed to build a new terminal complex. The money for the deposit was set aside in the airport’s 1991-92 budget, which was approved by directors.

Airport officials decided to tear down the existing terminal after the Federal Aviation Administration ruled it was too close to runways.

Under FAA rules terminals must be at least 750 feet away from runway center lines, but the Burbank terminal is only about 350 feet away.

Officials are expanding the waiting lounge despite the demolition plans because the new structure will not be ready for at least seven years, they said.