Are there are rules from the various civil aviation authorities regarding the naming of airports? Specifically, are there any rules regarding how far from a town / city an airport can be & still ‘claim’ that name in it’s title - ‘London’ Southend airport (over 40 miles from the west end of London) being a case in point.
Not really. Stewart International Airport (KSWF) is 70 miles northwest of NYC proper (to be exact, from the World Trade Center), and it is named “New York Stewart International Airport”. YMMB (Melbourne International Airport) in Melbourne, AU is roughly 50 minutes from the CBD of Melbourne. Melbourne/Essendon Airport is closer to the CBD than the International airport in Tullamarine.
Most airports are relative to the city nearest it, but there isn’t any regulation that I am aware of that requires a certain distance before the name of the city can not be used.
BL.
Stewart International Airport, if I’m not mistaken, is owned by the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.
From the New York Daily News:
“The story went that one day in 1934 the formidable new mayor of the City of New York was flying home from Chicago aboard a TWA DC-2 that landed, as was its practice, at Newark. And everyone got off the plane except Fiorello LaGuardia, who pointed out that his ticket said CHICAGO-NEW YORK and said he wanted to go to New York, not Newark. And the captain politely explained that, well, Newark was where New York flights landed because that’s where the airport was. And LaGuardia said again that his ticket damn well said New York and he refused to leave his seat.
And the captain thought this over, and by and by the plane was in the air again, delivering Mayor LaGuardia, its sole passenger, to Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, which could only just barely accommodate a DC-2.”
I’m also interested in this, thanks for the information!