Hollywood Burbank Airport is transforming, with a growing presence for budget airlines and a continued pullback by mainline carriers. Will this Burbank Airport makeover be permanent or is it simply a temporary change?
Canadian Airline Flair Adds Burbank Flights
Yesterday, Canadian budget carrier Flair announced it would launch flights this fall between Burbank (BUR) and three Canadian cities:
- Calgary (YYC)
- Toronto (YYZ)
- Vancouver (YVR)
This will mark the first-ever service to Canada from Burbank Hollywood Airport.
The announcement is part of Flair’s return to USA, which will include service between eight Canadian cities:
- Abbotsford (YXX)
- Calgary (YYC)
- Halifax (YHZ)
- Kitchener-Waterloo (YKF)
- Montreal (YUL)
- Ottawa (YOW)
- Toronto (YYZ)
- Vancouver (YVR)
and six U.S. cities:
- Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
- Hollywood Burbank (BUR)
- Las Vegas (LAS)
- Orlando – Sanford (SFB)
- Palm Springs (PSP)
- Phoenix – Mesa (AZA)
The low-cost carrier has a business model similar to ultra-low-cost carriers like Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines.
More Budget Carriers Add Service At Burbank
In addition to Flair, Frontier Airlines announced this spring it would add service to Burbank, with new routes starting next week to:
- Denver (DEN)
- Las Vegas (LAS)
- Phoenix (PHX)
This is in addition to Avelo Airlines, which serves a number of routes from Burbank and is planning to launch more this autumn, and Spirit Airlines, which currently offers daily service to Las Vegas but is expected to resume 3x daily service this fall.
There are also continued rumors that Allegiant and Breeze will also launch service from Burbank, though I’m not sure BUR can actually sustain more budget flights.
Meanwhile, Legacy Airlines Pull Back At Burbank
While Avelo, Frontier, and Flair constitute a new budget-carrier identity for Burbank Airport, Delta and United have pulled back.
During the pandemic, Delta suspended service between Burbank and Atlanta (ATL) and it has not resumed, nor is it in the schedule. Its service to Salt Lake City (SLC) has also been reduced.
Even more notably, United Airlines has suspended all service to San Francisco (SFO), a route that as late as 2020 featured multiple mainline flights per day. While it is understandable that service would be reduced when business travel remains depressed, it is surprising that United has effectively ceded the route to Southwest. Southwest continues to operate the route using a Boeing 737.
Meanwhile, United continues to operate a single daily flight to Denver (DEN) on a regional jet, a far cry from its mainline schedule prior to the pandemic. With Southwest serving both Houston Hobby (HOU) and Chicago Midway (MDW) nonstop from Burbank, it is also surprising United has not tried new service to Houston Bush Intercontinental (IAH) and Chicago O’Hare (ORD), even if on a larger regional jet.
While not a legacy carrier, JetBlue has also reduced service at Burbank, though it recently resumed twice daily service to New York (JFK). Boston (BOS) service was planned to return this summer, but has been pushed to September. JetBlue once served Orlando (MCO) and Washington (IAD) from Burbank as well, but cancelled the routes citing poor performance.
The Southwest Question At BUR
Southwest has scaled back intra-California operations quite a bit during the pandemic. While a more robust schedule appears again this autumn, those schedules have not been finalized and are subject to scaling back. While so-called “VFR” (visiting friends and relatives) travel continues to grow, the lack of business travel makes 2019-level frequencies unlikely.
I expect Southwest Airlines is considering service to Hawaii from Burbank, which would be a logical addition to its decision to fly to Hawaii from the West Coast.
Will Hawaiian Airlines Add Service?
Aloha Airlines connected Burbank and Hawaii for many years before the airline ceased operations in 2008. With A new fleet of Airbus A321neo, service to Burbank is possible and I would not be surprised to see Honolulu service from Burbank. I suspect even 3x-weekly service would be incredibly popular and quite successful.
Is Burbank A Premium Market?
All of this leads back to the question of what kind of market is Hollywood Burbank Airport? It’s one of the easiest airports to fly out of or arrive in, with minimal security waits and easy boarding and deplaning. It’s also closer to millions of Angelenos than Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
It would seem to me that airlines could support premium services, like JetBlue Mint, from Burbank. Despite its small size and lack of lounges, it is simply a delight to fly out of. Plus, the demographics of the surrounding cities are wealthy. But it will take one airline that is willing to take that leap of faith and try it…will it be JetBlue or American or United? Or have these carriers run the models and just determined it will not work?
CONCLUSION
There’s a lot of movement at Hollywood Burbank Airport as the beloved Southern California airport appears to be in the midst of a low-cost-carrier makeover. Will the pandemic forever transform the face of BUR or is there still hope for a premium market and return of mainline service from legacy carriers? At this point, only time will tell. But I’m optimistic.
I think you are confusing Flair with Swoop when you infer they are the low cost arm of WestJet. Flair is the only independent ULCC in Canada as far as I know.
Correct. Thanks.
United adding mainline in BUR is somewhat recent. I flew SFO-BUR from 2012-2018 almost weekly when I was consulting. I think I was on a mainline aircraft a few times. The rest were CRJ200’s. Almost everybody on that flight were also consultants at various firms. Doesn’t seem like there was much leisure on that route at all.
Indeed, BUR-SFO was my “mode flight” throughout law school and almost always a CRJ-200. But 5-6 flights per day. Then mainline returned after Kirby talked about not walking away from competition. I hope mainline returns…
Bob Hope would be proud I’m sure.
Wow -Burbank Hollywood INTERNATIONAL Airport. I guess pax would clear US customs in Canada?
United needs to bring back it’s express service to SFO – that is a huge loss for the airport.
I love BUR and am so frustrated that UA has so aggressively pulled back. I’m based in DC now instead of LA, but would happily take a mid-con stop to change planes if it meant avoiding LAX.
Perhaps if/when the new terminal gets built, they could add on more international destinations that don’t require pre-clearance! But that also requires the new terminal getting out of the planning phase it’s been stuck in for years.
As for Delta, it looks like there are 5 round-trips between SLC and BUR, which is about on-par with pre-COVID levels, and all of them are in E170/5s (which is what they used before).
I really do want the BUR-ATL route to come back, but that could also be due to a shortage of aircraft too. Delta did use the 737-700 exclusively for that route, but now those are retired. Perhaps once a few more A220s get added to the fleet, there could be room to bring back BUR-ATL service as I know it was quite popular (sold out when I flew it).
I love BUR! I’ve flown the JetBlue Red eye from JFK once before but all my BUR flying has been exclusively SWA. Nothing better than walking out on the tarmac, gonna be so sad when they build that new terminal if it has jet bridges.
Burbank Bus operates a bus line from the North Hollywood Metro station directly to the airport, I’ve been using it for years and it is super convenient. Super easy to catch the subway and bus than dealing with LAX.
I read that the AirStairs *will* remain part of the new BUR. What I found interesting is that the new BUR — assuming it actually happens within the next few millennia 🙂 — will have only 14 gates.
It’s interesting to see Burbank develop this way. It’s not as if new. For years it’s been a decent alternative. Always liked the retro feel.
Here in the DMV I am guessing that in the next few years we are going to see a 4th, or even 5th airport come into play. There is a growing need for closer options to both Fredricksburg, VA and Frederick, MD. As the metro area expands outward these key locations have a huge growing population, and booming regions that are tired of the congestion to and at DCA, BWI, and IAD. Satellite airports like BUR are the new black.
Bring Imelda Marcos Airways to Burbank.
The intrastate college market (UC, Stanford, USC students living across the state) must be significant too. Just like BOS, this market has disappeared during COVID.
BUR is hands-down the best LA-area airport for quick access to downtown LA, and the only one that’s really usable without renting a car. Yes, LAX has buses (sort of, after you get to/from the terminal in the midst of the parking lots) and they’re building a connection to light rail, but that’s someday (and it’s light rail that’ll take more than an hour with at least one transfer to get downtown); BUR has had good (train and bus) connections for ages, with Metrolink and Amtrak stopping at the airport (5-10 minute walk from the main terminal) and getting downtown in about 20 minutes) and the connector bus to the Red Line at North Hollywood. The ease of getting on/off the planes is a plus – Southwest has always worked both ends of the plane, and I’ve seen cases where they’ve been able to turn around a plane (arrival at gate to departure from gate) in 15 min or less.
The downside is not enough space in the terminal. I’ve often had to sit in the hallway because there aren’t enough seats in the waiting areas. Also, being just a stop on a longer route with SWA means that late afternoon flights are almost always late, sometimes by hours. Still, my experience there (doing a SMF-BUR commute occasionally) has been good. First couple of morning flights and flights between 4-7pm are practically commute buses – usually stuffed full of business travelers.