Invisible L.A.

I have to say that since I moved to the L.A. area in 2000, Burbank Airport, a.k.a. Bob Hope Airport (BUR), has been my hub of choice. I beg friends to choose that as their arrival point and leave from there whenever I can.

My daughter lives with her dad up in the Bay Area and visits me once a month, so I consider myself a sort of “airport connoisseur” as I am there picking her up or dropping her off 25 or more times a year. Of course, I have never seen this perspective of the field, as I am driving there, but what I love about Burbank Airport is how easy it is to get in and out, especially compared to the nightmare that is LAX.

photo courtesy of PilotAge.com

The cops in front of the terminal are kind of grouchy and they don’t have a lot of patience with the pick-up scene, so my daughter and I have worked out a little system that I will share with you, because it’s been working for us. I probably should keep my mouth shut.

A side note: Here are some photos and the mission statement from the Burbank Airport Police website (!)

Their stated mission is: “…to provide a courageous, professional and courteous law enforcement response…”. OK, I get the professional and courageous part, but the courteous, well, maybe not so much. But then again, I guess standing outside in the heat and cold, telling people to move on is not that much fun.

Back to my smooth sailing technique: Right across the street from the terminal’s South entrance on Empire Ave. is the Amtrak Station. They have a small pull-in parking area there and that’s where I sit in my car and wait for my daughter’s (usually delayed) plane to land. Once her plane touches terra firma, she calls me from her cell and I swing my car into the terminal. On weekends (when she usually flies), there is often a terrible wait to even pull up to the terminal, so even though she’s on a Southwest Air flight, I have her walk beyond that first terminal, where all the crowds hang out, south to the end of the airport and wait for me there. I can usually just glide in, toss her bags in the trunk and screech out before any of the world’s grumpiest police officers can blink an eye!

Let me know (in the comment area) if you have any better tricks!

Just as an FYI, here are the airlines that currently are flying out of BUR: Alaska, American, America West, Delta, Jet Blue, Southwest and United.

If you are going out of town for a while, the long-term parking is pretty reasonable. The cheapest parking lot is across the street on Thornton and the bus ride is about three minutes. Don’t you just love it! Here is a handy parking rates chart.

burbank-parking-rates.pdf

ok, gotta run,

see you on the freeway!

jessica