Flight Curfew Gains in Airport Board Vote

Hoping to end years of strife between Burbank Airport and its neighbors, the airport’s governing body Monday unanimously approved a measure that could eventually lead to a federally ordered curfew.

The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority voted 8 to 0 to initiate a so-called Part 161 study, an exhaustive and expensive federal review needed to convert the airport’s currently voluntary restriction on flights between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. into a mandatory ban.

A mandatory curfew has been the stated goal of anti-noise activists. Airport officials said they would separately consider a proposal from the city of Burbank to pay up to $250,000 of the Part 161 study’s expense.

The apparent move toward reconciliation did not bring an immediate truce in the years-long feud, however. Burbank officials said the city reserved the right to oppose the results of the study, and the city would not relent in its opposition to the authority’s plans for a new terminal.

The authority’s action follows a decision by the Air Transport Assn., which represents five of Burbank’s six airlines, to reject the airport authority’s request for an ironclad curfew.