Hollywood Burbank gets a new terminal and the bigger jets are coming with it

Hollywood Burbank Airport will open its new Replacement Terminal in fall 2026, ending nearly a century of operations from a facility built in 1930. The 14-gate terminal on the north side of the airfield is engineered to accommodate the next generation of narrowbody aircraft, including the Boeing 737 MAX 10 and the Airbus A321neo, marking a significant infrastructure shift for one of Southern California’s busiest commercial airports.

What’s Being Built at Burbank?

The current Terminal B has been handling passengers since before the Douglas DC-3 existed. It now processes roughly six million passengers per year through a facility never designed for that volume.

The Replacement Terminal, developed by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority, broke ground in 2021 after more than a decade of planning and environmental review. The target opening is October or November 2026.

Key features include:

14 gates with modern jet bridges
A consolidated security checkpoint sized for current passenger loads
Gate infrastructure built for narrowbodies up to the 737 MAX 10 and A321neo
Location on the north side of the airfield, closer to the runway complex

Why Bigger Jets Matter at Burbank

The 737 MAX 10 is the longest variant in the MAX family at 182 feet nose to tail, seating up to 230 passengers in a typical two-class layout. The A321neo stretches 146 feet and carries up to 244 passengers depending on configuration. These are substantially larger aircraft than the 737-800s that have been the workhorse at Burbank.

Burbank’s primary runway, Runway 15/33, is just over 6,000 feet. Boeing has designed the MAX 10 with shorter-field performance characteristics, but these aircraft represent a meaningfully different traffic mix than what the airport has historically handled.

Southwest Airlines remains the dominant carrier, but Delta, United, American, JetBlue, Spirit, and others also operate there. As these carriers transition fleets to MAX variants and A321neos, the old terminal simply could not physically accommodate those airframes at the gate.

What Doesn’t Change: Noise Restrictions and Runway Lengths

The new terminal does not alter Burbank’s voluntary noise abatement program or its runway dimensions. Community sensitivity to jet noise has long shaped operations at this airport.

What the terminal does accomplish is modernizing the passenger facility to handle existing traffic efficiently while accommodating the larger airframes airlines are already ordering. This is an infrastructure upgrade, not an expansion of the airport’s operational footprint.

What GA Pilots Should Watch For

General aviation pilots operating near Burbank should anticipate operational impacts during the transition:

Larger narrowbodies change the traffic mix, approach speeds, and wake turbulence categories in the pattern and on approach
NOTAMs will likely reflect temporary changes to taxi routes, hold-short lines, and surface movement procedures during the ground operations reconfiguration
Burbank tower already manages a complex mix of airline, corporate, and GA traffic — construction transitions add another layer requiring close attention to airport diagrams and ground control instructions

Runway 8/26, the shorter of Burbank’s two runways, remains part of the operational picture. Pilots should monitor how the introduction of heavier narrowbodies on Runway 15/33 affects sequencing and spacing.

What Happens to the Historic Terminal B?

Terminal B’s 1930 art deco architecture carries genuine historical significance. The airport authority has indicated a desire to preserve elements of the original structure, though specific plans remain unfinished.

If the original open-air terminal experience matters to you — walking off a jet directly onto the tarmac with nothing but sky overhead — fall 2026 is likely the last opportunity to experience it as it has operated for nearly a century.

The Bigger Industry Trend

Burbank joins a growing list of U.S. airports investing in terminal infrastructure to match the airline fleet transition already underway. The 737 MAX 10 and A321neo are replacing older, less efficient narrowbodies and even some widebody routes. Airports that cannot accommodate these airframes at the gate risk losing carrier interest and route development.

This pattern is playing out nationally, and Burbank’s investment positions it for the next 20 years of commercial aviation in the Los Angeles basin.

Information sourced from Simple Flying and the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority. Time-sensitive details current as of May 2026.

Key Takeaways

Hollywood Burbank Airport’s new 14-gate Replacement Terminal opens in fall 2026, replacing a facility that has been in service since 1930
The terminal is built to handle the 737 MAX 10 and A321neo, the larger narrowbodies now entering airline fleets across all major Burbank carriers
Noise restrictions and runway lengths remain unchanged — this is an infrastructure modernization, not an airport expansion
GA pilots should monitor NOTAMs closely during the transition for changes to surface operations and should factor larger aircraft wake turbulence into their planning
The historic Terminal B’s future is uncertain, with preservation of art deco elements under discussion but not yet finalized