Burbank Airport Traffic Delays Hit Travelers Amid Construction – LAmag

Construction is slowing down one of L.A.’s last “easy” travel experiences

There was a time when flying out of Hollywood Burbank Airport felt like getting away with something.

You could leave your apartment late, breeze through a modest security line, grab a coffee and still make boarding without the ritual stress that defines LAX. It was, for a long time, the anti-airport airport. Efficient. Unpretentious. Almost pleasant.

Right now, not so much.

A new construction project is already reshaping that experience, and not in a subtle way. Beginning this week, a key stretch of Hollywood Way near Thornton Avenue has been reduced to a single southbound lane, creating a choke point for anyone trying to reach the airport.

The lane closure is expected to last about 60 days, running Monday through Saturday between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., which conveniently overlaps with some of the airport’s busiest travel windows.

Airport officials are now urging travelers to arrive at least two hours early, a phrase that feels particularly jarring in Burbank, where showing up early used to feel unnecessary, even paranoid.

There are workarounds. Drivers can enter through Empire Avenue or reroute via Thornton. But in practice, anyone who has tried to “just take a different way” in Los Angeles knows how that usually goes.

What’s Actually Being Built

This is not random roadwork. The lane closure is tied to a larger, long-anticipated overhaul of the airport itself.

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Crews are building a retaining wall as part of the broader passenger terminal replacement project, a massive effort aimed at modernizing one of the region’s most outdated airport facilities.

The disruption is part of the airport’s long-planned “Elevate BUR” project, a roughly $1.2 billion overhaul that will replace the existing terminal with a modern, 14-gate facility designed to meet current safety standards and handle future passenger demand.

Construction began in 2024 and is expected to run through 2026, with upgrades extending beyond the terminal itself, including new parking, improved access roads and better connections to regional transit.

In other words, the inconvenience is temporary. The upgrade is permanent.

But that logic rarely comforts someone watching their ETA tick dangerously close to boarding time.

The End of “Easy Travel” in Burbank?

There is something quietly symbolic about this moment.

For years, Burbank has operated as a kind of loophole in the Los Angeles travel ecosystem. While LAX grew more complex, more crowded and more unpredictable, Burbank stayed simple. Walk up, walk in, walk onto the plane. Even the famously steep landings felt like part of its charm.

Now, even getting to the terminal requires strategy.

It is not just the lane closures. It is the mental shift. The realization that this airport, too, is entering a new phase, one that looks a little more like everywhere else.

That does not mean it is losing what made it special. But it does mean the margin for error is shrinking.

So yes, leave earlier than you think you need to. Add the buffer. Check the route twice. Because for the next two months, at least, the easiest airport in Los Angeles just got a little harder.

The ease isn’t gone. It’s just under construction.