San Fernando Valley Burbank Southwest Airlines Co. is cutting six flights from Burbank Bob Hope Airport. The Dallas airline will now offer 43 non-stop flights to Denver, Las Vegas, Oakland, Phoenix, Sacramento and San Jose. Southwest is the largest of the seven airlines that operate out of the airport, which has seen declining passenger counts. Traffic at the airport fell 8 percent in July from a year earlier, while Southwest’s numbers were down 3.2 percent that month. Leland Ayers, the former mayor responsible for acquiring Burbank Bob Hope Airport, has died. Ayers served as a Burbank councilman, including two terms as mayor, from 1973 to 1985. He passed away Sept. 2 at his home in San Diego after a long illness. He was 80. Ayers spearheaded the deal in which Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena purchased the airport in 1977 from Lockheed Martin Corp. He was one of the original members of the joints powers authority that operates the airport, serving on its board from 1977 to 1990. Woodland Hills Zorik Gordon has resigned as chief executive of ReachLocal Inc.¸ a Woodland Hills company that sells Internet advertising services to small and medium-sized business. Chairman David Carlick will serve as interim chief executive. The company said Gordon, who served in the position since 2003, is leaving to pursue other entrepreneurial opportunities. Carlick is a partner at New York investment fund Rho Capital Partners and co-founded DoubleClick, an Internet advertising company that was bought by Google Inc. for $3.1 billion in 2007. He has been a board member at ReachLocal since 2004. Van Nuys The $20 million renovation project of the main runway at Van Nuys Airport was completed last month. The project, which was almost entirely paid for by an FAA grant, included repaving the runway, extending the shoulders and installing new lighting and marking. The seven-month project required a 10-day closure in July as crews laid down a thick asphalt coating on the center section of the runway. The project created tension between airport tenants and Los Angeles World Airports, because the agency originally estimated the closure could last as long as four weeks. The two sides worked out a compromise that shortened the closure. Glendale Walt Disney Co. has signed a deal to make live-action and animated feature films available online through Chinese social and entertainment services company Tencent Holdings Ltd. of Shenzhen. The Burbank media and entertainment conglomerate joins other major U.S. studios, including Warner Bros. Entertainment in Burbank, in distributing content through the “Hollywood VIP” digital service from Tencent. The Disney deal includes films from its Walt Disney Studios, Pixar and Marvel Entertainment film units. Titles include “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Toy Story 3” and “The Avengers.” Tencent was founded in 1998 and began trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2004. Antelope Valley Palmdale Kinkisharyo International Inc., which plans to open a large Palmdale factory to build light rail cars, is moving its U.S. headquarters to El Segundo. The company, a subsidiary of Kinki Sharyo Co. Ltd. of Osaka, Japan, is relocating from Westwood, Mass. In July, the L.A. County Metropolitan Transit Authority exercised two options from an earlier contract with the firm that called for the construction of 97 new light rail vehicles. The cars are valued at $397 million. Kinkisharyo is in the process of leasing hanger space on Site 9, a 307-acre parcel in Palmdale owned by Los Angeles World Airports. The company is looking to hire about 150 employees for the factory. Conejo Valley Thousand Oaks The Conejo Recreation and Parks District is constructing four carports with solar panels that are expected to save almost $3.5 million in electricity costs over the next 25 years. The panels are being installed by German manufacturer SolarWorld AG, with financing from Sustainable Power Group, a Salt Lake City renewable energy development firm. The SolarWorld division in Camarillo will oversee the engineering, procurement and construction of the panels, which will be installed in parking lots of Borchard Community Park, Dos Vientos Community Park, Thousand Oaks Community Park and Conejo Creek South Park. Financial details were not disclosed. Around the Valleys To be considered for publication, submissions should be emailed to: [email protected]. Please put ATV in the subject line. For more information, call (818) 316-3123.
Around the Valleys
