Lot Full: Burbank Looks for Help

Passengers at Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport this summer may have to park in Van Nuys.

With a record number of travelers expected through September, officials expect they will run out of parking and have asked Los Angeles if they can use its Van Nuys park-and-ride lot.

Burbank airport operators acknowledge that advising customers to park several miles away may cancel out the reason they patronize the airfield in the first place.

“It’s inimical to our typical Burbank customer profile,” said Victor Gill, an airport spokesman. “They want the convenience of Burbank airport; they don’t want to remote-park and take a shuttle.”

The parking problem is a symptom of the crowding forecast for the region’s four mid-size airports this summer as they continue to siphon flights and passengers away from aging Los Angeles International Airport.

Long Beach Airport has outgrown its Art Deco terminal, which now is used only for ticketing. Two temporary trailers that act as boarding lounges are at capacity. This summer, passengers can expect to sit outside as they await their flights.

“Come July, we will have some challenges with seating,” said Sharon Diggs-Jackson, a spokeswoman for Long Beach Airport.

Ontario International Airport and John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana also expect record-setting passenger levels, though operators there say they have space to accommodate them.

Southern California’s regional airports are victims of their own success. Passengers flocked to the smaller airfields after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to avoid long lines at LAX. Then low-cost carriers chose to place more flights at the suburban outposts.

Taken together, these factors helped regional facilities serve 30.4% of the region’s passengers in 2005, compared to 24% in 2001. LAX, meanwhile, handled 69.6% of the Southland’s travelers last year, down from 76% in 2001.

The shift is subtle, but it means big crowds and long lines in Burbank, Long Beach, Ontario and Santa Ana, where passengers used to be able to arrive an hour before a flight, park and sail through security to their gates. No more.

“When you’re moving toward decentralization ... you have to worry about what the impacts will be on the secondary airports,” said Steven Erie, a UC San Diego political science professor who has studied the region’s airports. “You’re starting to see it; parking is one of the first things to be hit.”

Parking is already scarce at Burbank. On a recent Saturday, the economy lot was full by 7 a.m., leading attendants to place a rectangular sign reading “Lot Closed” and orange cones in the entrance. Several other lots soon filled up too.

At Lot A, dozens of unsuspecting drivers showed up, some pulling over to ask attendants where they could park before turning around and racing away. Others cursed through open windows, saying they were already short on time.

“This is happening more often because we’re the cheapest,” said Linda Prescott, a parking attendant at Lot A, which charges $7 a day -- contrasted with $11 a day in Lot D, to which passengers were redirected.

As spaces periodically opened up, attendants removed cones and shuttle drivers gave motorists precise directions to a spot before following them into the lot for personal service.

Capistrano Beach trade show manager Luann Alesio was one of the lucky ones. After pulling her car to the side of the access road to Lot A and waiting for 20 minutes, she got a rare vacant space.

“I could do that because I had some extra time,” said Alesio, a frequent flier who was traveling to Chicago to visit her boyfriend and then to Orlando for work. “But if I had to go to another lot, with me being gone for 2 1/2 weeks, it would really add up.”

That’s precisely the problem. Carriers have added more long-haul flights at Burbank, leading passengers to occupy the airport’s 6,500 parking spots for longer periods. If travelers can’t find a space in an economy lot, they have to pay more for a space in a private lot or for the airport’s valet or short-term parking offerings.

Private lots across the street from the airport, including the Hilton Hotel and Carter’s VSP Parking, also are seeing their slots fill up more quickly and for longer periods.

“In the last year or two, the turnover isn’t as much,” said Greg Murphy, a general manager at Carter’s VSP, adding that now about 400 of his 600 spaces are full in the morning, compared with 200 several years ago.

“People are staying longer; instead of one or two days, they’re staying for three or four days,” he said.

Last summer, Burbank’s economy lots often filled up, but parking remained in other spots around the airport. Officials fear that won’t be the case this summer as airlines increase their seats here by 10%, leaving 9,000 departing passengers at the start of each day, on average, seeking 3,300 spaces.

Some critics contend that Burbank airport operators artificially created a parking crisis by buying a private lot next door to the terminal and converting much of it to higher-priced valet spaces.

Officials disagree, saying they moved their valet operations from a remote lot to the airport for efficiency -- and as part of an agreement with the city of Burbank -- and added more personal spaces to the lot for self-parkers.

Valet parking at the airport costs $20 a day, compared with $15 a day for outdoor parking at Carter’s VSP and $10 a day at the Hilton. To keep up with the demand, airport officials raised rates in the short-term parking structure and lots B and C by about 25% in February, and by 57% in Lot D.

Even though vacant property rings the airport, officials cannot develop parking on it because they signed an agreement with the city of Burbank last year promising not to build anything for several years.

Airport operators hoped the deal would put to rest years of acrimony between residents and the airport and stop the city of Burbank from enacting punitive zoning provisions that would restrict development on airport property.

Consequently, officials are left to ask other cities for help.

Airport operators have sent letters to Glendale and Pasadena -- the other two cities that share airport oversight -- asking if they have vacant lots where passengers could park. And Los Angeles’ Airport Commission next month probably will consider a proposal to allow Burbank airport travelers to use Van Nuys FlyAway, where parking costs $4 a day.

Burbank airport officials are also urging travelers to take public transportation instead of driving, but they’re skeptical that the advice will be heeded.

“The problem is you’re trying to modify a long-established pattern