Hollywood Burbank Airport is preparing to retire the passenger terminal that has occupied the southeast corner of its airfield since 1930. The existing terminals are scheduled to handle their final day of passenger operations on Monday, October 12, 2026, before flights move to a new building on Tuesday, October 13. The old complex is slated for demolition after the changeover.
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For 96 years, passengers have departed from essentially the same corner of the airport, even as the building around them was repeatedly rebuilt. The original Spanish Colonial Revival terminal witnessed the rise of commercial aviation in Southern California, Lockheed’s wartime aircraft production, the jet age, and the airport’s transformation into an alternative to LAX. Much of its 1930 architecture disappeared long before this month’s closing, a qualification that belongs in any account of what is being lost.
When Burbank was a new gateway to Los Angeles
The airport opened as United Airport on May 30, 1930, after a development effort by United Aircraft and Transport Corporation. At the time, nearby Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale was an important gateway to Los Angeles, and the new Burbank field was designed to compete for airline traffic. Its opening-day terminal was a Spanish Colonial Revival building anchored by a three-story tower, with arcades, tiled roofs, and a rooftop observation area.
The dedication stretched over Memorial Day weekend, with an air show and crowds gathered around the terminal. The Burbank Public Library’s historical collection includes a photograph of the 1930 dedication, showing aircraft flying above the terminal’s roof. Another archival image of Union Air Terminal records the distinctive tower and low, Spanish-style wings.
In 1934, the airport became Union Air Terminal. Aviation pioneers including Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, Wiley Post, and Howard Hughes were associated with the airport and neighboring Lockheed operations in those years. A 1993 Los Angeles Times history described the terminal’s Sky Room Cafe as a place where some of those pilots could be found between flights.
Lockheed bought the airport in 1940 and renamed it Lockheed Air Terminal. During World War II, the nearby aircraft plant produced military airplanes, and the airfield became part of an elaborate camouflage effort intended to conceal the site from an aerial attack. The facility’s early commercial role and Lockheed’s manufacturing history are closely intertwined, although a visitor to the present-day terminals would see little of the architecture that framed that era.
The 1930 building had already changed dramatically
Calling today’s terminal a surviving 1930 building needs an explanation. A major fire in 1966 damaged the terminal and its control-tower facilities, and Lockheed reconstructed substantial portions afterward. Terminal B was added in 1974, followed by another major expansion in 1987 and security-related alterations after September 11, 2001.
The original terminal’s location remained, and portions of its fabric reportedly survived within later construction. In the 1993 Los Angeles Times account, an airport spokesman described seeing old adobe-colored walls and architectural details concealed behind newer walls during renovations. That report documents surviving pieces at the time; it does not establish exactly how much original material remains in the building in 2026.
The preservation question was examined again as part of the replacement project. In its 2021 environmental decision, the FAA reported reviewing 18 airport buildings for possible eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places. It identified Hangars 1 and 2 as eligible, while the heavily altered passenger terminal did not receive that finding. Historical association and architectural integrity are different tests, and Burbank’s terminal has far more of the former than the latter.
Why a replacement took decades
The terminal’s proximity to the runways has troubled airport planners for more than four decades. According to airport authority documents, the building sits roughly 125 feet from the centerline of an active runway, within an area that modern FAA airfield design standards ordinarily seek to keep clear to a distance of 250 feet. The FAA has permitted airport operations with special procedures, but relocating the terminal allows the airport to meet current design standards and address seismic, accessibility, and space limitations.
Replacement was being seriously discussed by 1980. In 1993, the Los Angeles Times reported on plans that would have demolished the old terminal; those plans never came to fruition. Airport relocation proposals were repeatedly caught up in land issues, litigation, and disagreement over local control. A 2023 federal appeals court opinion traces how several proposed terminals failed before Burbank voters approved a replacement plan in 2016.
That vote authorized a facility with no more than 14 gates, a constraint that remains central to the project. The approximately $1.3 billion terminal-relocation project includes a new 355,000-square-foot passenger building, compared with roughly 232,000 square feet in the outgoing complex. It relocates passenger operations from the southeast to the northeast side of the airfield, creating more room for security, baggage handling, and waiting areas without adding passenger gates.
What changes for travelers on October 13
The new terminal is scheduled to welcome passengers on Tuesday, October 13, with one ticketing hall, one security checkpoint, and one indoor baggage-claim area. Its address is 2827 North Hollywood Way, Burbank, CA 91505, and the main vehicle entrance moves to the intersection of Hollywood Way and Winona Avenue. Travelers accustomed to the old Thornton Avenue entrance should update their navigation and pickup instructions.
The airport says its outdoor aircraft boarding tradition will continue at the new facility. The parking structure and valet operations are moving, Lot E closes permanently on October 13, and the rental car center remains at the Regional Intermodal Transportation Center with shuttle connections. The airport’s parking updates and replacement-terminal FAQ are the best sources for arrangements affecting a particular trip.
What disappears, and what remains
Demolition of the outgoing terminal is expected to begin after the new facility opens. The airport’s project FAQ projects work beginning in late 2026 and lasting about nine months, while the City of Burbank says demolition is to be completed within 12 months of the new terminal’s operational opening. That schedule concerns the existing passenger complex, which incorporates construction and rebuilding from several different decades.
The airport itself will continue operating, and its longer history will remain visible in records, photographs, and surviving facilities. The distinction is especially clear in the Huntington’s panoramic photograph of the May 30, 1930 opening: the composition shows the original terminal at the center of an airfield that was already a major civic event. The Burbank Public Library photographs preserve details of a building most travelers in 2026 have never seen in its original form.
The building now approaching demolition is the final descendant of that terminal, rather than a pristine example of 1930 architecture. Its loss closes an unusually long chapter of passenger service on one airport site. For a different example of how early air-travel architecture has survived in active use, see LaGuardia’s Marine Air Terminal, which opened a decade later and is still serving travelers.