Bob Hope Airport Welcomes Hollywood Again After 11-Year Filming Ban

The setting of numerous films and TV shows, Burbank's Bob Hope Airport has re-opened to filming after a post-9/11 break

By Alissa Medina

| Wednesday, Jul 11, 2012 | Updated 4:12 PM PDT

Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, shown here in 2003, reopened for filming this spring after an 11-year hiatus. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

The Bob Hope Airport -- the aviation setting for numerous films and television shows -- has re-opened its property to filming after an 11-year break.

The Burbank airport in past welcomed television and film shoots, including the Tom Cruise film "Top Gun."

The 82-year-old airport stopped allowing shoots after the 9/11 attacks, but a need for new revenue helped reverse a decision to halt filming.

Since the terrorist attacks, the Bob Hope Airport’s "major priority was to offer safe and secure travel opportunities" to its passengers, according to director of public affairs and communications for the airport, Victor Gill.

However, with the airport's recent drop in passengers numbers, airport officials "saw it as an opportunity" as "demands on facilities are not quite as great" at this time, according to Gill.

In 2007, the peak number of passengers for the airport hit 5.9 million, Gill said. Last year, the airport only saw 4.3 million passengers.

"The filming that took place here prior to 9/11 was fairly infrequent, so it was not a big revenue producer. But (now) we are interested in the additional revenue we will get in the filming activity," Gill said.

"Over the past 10 to 11 years we’ve had calls looking for access and our answer was plain 'no.' We knew that the demand was there," he added.

The airport started allowing film shoots again in February 2012; its first big shoot was "The Bling Ring," directed by Sophia Coppola, according to a press release.

Scenes from shows such as "Mannix" and "Perry Mason" were also shot at the Burbank airport, according to Gill.

A Burbank city offical said scenes from1986 action film "Top Gun," featuring Tom Cruise, and the 1992 film "Sister Act" were shot on the property. Music videos for Guns N' Roses, ZZ Top, and George Michael were also shot there, along with television shows "Murder She Wrote," "Seinfield" and "Roswell."

Information on filming at the airport can be found on the Burbank airport’s website.

"The door is open," said Gill. "There’s good opportunities for aviation-related visual context that we presume are going to be attractive to filmmakers."