Bob Hope Isn’t Joking

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What’s in a name? At Bob Hope Airport, apparently quite a bit.

With passenger traffic down more than 25 percent since 2007, airlines have suggested changing the name to better reflect the airport’s location, which might help attract passengers.

“The Bob Hope name took pretty well for the local audience, but the issue has always been, for the out-of-town guest, where is Bob Hope?” said airport spokesman Victor Gill.

Though still officially Bob Hope Airport, it’s been referred to as Burbank Bob Hope Airport in press releases and marketing materials in the past few months.

If that name is officially adopted, it would be the airport’s seventh moniker in its 82-year history – and not the first aimed at boosting business.

Built in 1930 by a sister company of United Airlines, it was initially called United Airport. Four years later, to attract other airlines, the name was changed to Union Air Terminal.

Lockheed Aircraft Co. bought the airport in 1940 and renamed it Lockheed Air Terminal. That name stuck until 1967, when it was changed to Hollywood-Burbank Airport to cash in on the nearby glitzy neighborhood.

Then in 1978, Lockheed sold the airport to a joint-powers authority run by the Tri-Cities, and the new name reflected that: the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport. Finally, in 2003, when Hollywood icon and Toluca Lake resident Bob Hope died, the name was changed in his honor.

For now, the name has not been officially changed again since that would require a vote by each of the Tri-Cities’ councils, but Gill said that could happen if the move boosts passenger traffic.

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