I’ve noticed some revisions in the airport names on the site and so far have only noticed that they make the airport names even more complicated than they already are; for example KMSP is now Minneapolis-St Paul Intl/Wold Chamberlain, and KBOS is General Edward Lawrence Logan Intl. Why such drawn out names? Would a non-enthusiast even know when Logan is without doing a search? It’s just something I’ve noticed lately.
JB
POLITICIANS! They think renaming the airport will make it more attractive.
While Dami is correct in that airport names are often changed to attact business , your two examples haven’t changed in a long while. MSP’s original name was Wold Chamberlain field, with the Minneapolis-St Paul Int being tacked on front in 1944. Boston’s main airport was renamed to hounor General Edward Lawrence Logan in 1956.
I don’t remember how these airports showed up before the database update a few days ago, but it is possible the new database has more verbose naming. For the newbie, the search is doing partial matches, so entering “Logan” brings up “Edward Lawrence Logan Int’l (Boston, MA) (KBOS)” in the short list of choices.
Hi, folks. jreeves is correct that the new database just has more verbose names. I’m open to any manual overrides to shorten it since it can be a formatting problem when the names are too long.
I don’t really have a problem with this but just for the benefit of other users, wouldn’t it be good for some airports to at least include the name of the city? With KBOS even if you type “Boston” into the code searchy thing KBOS doesn’t show up, due to the fact that the airport name does not include “Boston”.
JB
But Logan DOES show up if you choose “don’t know airport code” and start typing Boston*
And wouldn’t worry if newbies cant’ find Boston, its not that big of a college town**
**Reference source points available!
DCA
Went from “Washington National Airport”
to “Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport” in 1998.
BWI
Went from “Baltimore/Washington International Airport”
to “Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshal Airport” in 2005.
IAD has always been “Washington Dulles International Airport”, named after John Foster Dulles, United States Secretary of State under Dwight D. Eisenhower. I think all Washington, DC area airports should have long, convoluded names. I hereby move to officially rename IAD to “Washington John Foster Dulles International Airport”. All those in favor say “aye”.
I’m aware of the changes; I just don’t see how necessary they are. For example, VHHH is still Hong Kong Intl, when it is now called Chek Lap Kok. Same with VTBS, which is really called Suvarnabhumi Intl.
JB
Hmm, did you actually experience that? The airport code search should do a match on either the airport name or city name.
Repeating and adding to what I said above: POLITICIANS! They think renaming the airport will make it more attractive.
They think people are so stupid that if they change the name of the airport then more people will be attracted to it. Look at all of the airports that are 50-60 miles away from Chicago yet have recently had the word “Chicago” add to them.
Honestly - if the airport is named “Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshal Airport,” are you more apt to fly to it than if it was named “Baltimore/Washington International Airport” or, as it originally was, “Baltimore Friendship Airport?”
Are you using FireFox? This was a known bug but fixed for IE7 some time ago. See This Thread. It still doesn’t work in FireFox for me except on the main page.
I think it is still inoperative if you are trying to conduct an airport or airline search from the discussion forums.
Ah Ha! I could never figure out why it worked sometimes but not others. Thanks! 
Same here, I have to keep a separate Tab open with the main page in Firefox to perform searches. Won’t work from the Discussion page.
Can I lobby to tidy up some of the international airport names?
Although the names may be correct (politicians or self grandiosement) in many cases they dont give a clue as to where it actually is (sadly I dont think anyone is willing to update international mouseover names a la’ the US airports, nice touch!)
see MMTO/MMMX/SKBO/LEMD/ESSA/CYUL as just some examples, it may just make the system a little more user friendly for those not in the know for such matters.
IN (UK)
Exactly my point, especially with international airports. I have had to google the airport name, simply because Flightaware didn’t have the city. Some (like FAJS/Johannesburg Intl) are simple enough, but others such as Leopold Sedar Senghor (Dakar, Senegal/GOOY) aren’t as obvious.
I’m not complaining, just trying to make things easier for newer users who aren’t as familiar.
JB