Faced with airports naming themselves after popstars, sportsmen and fictional characters, the UK CAA has decided that enough is enough and is warning them that for operational purposes they are going to have to stick to something more sensible.
The regulators are concerned that some names - one of which manages to incorporate two towns and a mythical outlaw - have the potential to cause congestion on air traffic control radio frequencies and in some cases are geographically misleading.
The warning follows a series of decision by UK airports in recent years to rename themselves - reflecting a trend that is also widespread in the USA.
In the most recent example, Belfast City Airport is to be renamed next week after local soccer legend and spectacular alcoholic George Best, who died earlier this year. But Liverpool Airport has already been renamed after singer John Lennon, while the UK’s newest base was given the notably unwieldy name Robin Hood Airport Doncaster-Sheffield.
In a set of guidelines on the matter the CAA’s Aerodrome Standards Department stresses that aerodrome names must be “consistently recognisable, relevant, unambiguous and promulgated accordingly”.
While it concedes that ICAO’s airport standards recommendations do not specifically cover the permissibility of airport names, the CAA says that these recommendations imply that an airport should be named according to the nearest city or town it serves.
“It is now becoming increasingly common for aerodromes to be given commercially-inspired names, which do not follow this principle,” it states. “While the chosen name of an aerodrome may offer commercial or marketing benefits, it is important to ensure that there is no detrimental effect on aviation safety.”
In its policy guidelines the CAA says that the name should be “representative of its location” and adds: “Where the name includes a large conurbation or area that the aerodrome serves, it should also include the nearest settlement.
“Names that are non-aviation related, the name of a public figure, or that reflect the type of aerodrome or its operation – for example, ‘International’ – are not permitted.”
It adds that commercial names are not to be used in correspondence with the authority.
A CAA spokesman points out that, within aeronautical publications and for formal aviation use, airports need to be clearly identifiable. He adds that communicating long airport names simply takes up unnecessary radio time on congested air/ground frequencies.
“It doesn’t matter what the airport calls itself to its passengers,” he says. “We’re concerned only with safety and ease of use.”
He says that he is unaware of any particular cases of airports which will be required to change their names.
East Midlands Airport was renamed as Nottingham East Midlands two years ago, to allay confusion as to where the airport was located, while local councillors in the southern UK recently proposed that Southampton Airport be renamed after Reginald Joseph Mitchell, the designer of the Supermarine Spitfire fighter.
Source: Flight International
