Austin San Antonio International Airport
I was alerted in a blog post today about flights from Chicago Rockford Airport.
When I grew up, Rockford was about 85 miles from Chicago. I checked Mapquest, and it still is. Rockford has apparently adapted the Ryanair model, where, if you are in the same time zone as a major city, you can name your airport after it. Rockford is kinda sorta close to the Chicago exurbs, so they named themselves after Chicago.
What would happen if other airports used this model?
Madison (MSN) could rename its airport Madison Milwaukee. It’s only 77 miles away.
Can Austin (AUS) rename its airport Austin San Antonio.? AUS is 88 miles away from downtown San Antonio?
But what if San Antonio (SAT) renamed itself San Antonio Austin? SAT is only 74 miles from downtown Austin. That’s even closer!
Even better, they could both do it, and we would have Austin San Antonio (AUS) and San Antonio Austin (SAT)!
Can Gainesville start calling itself Gainesville Jacksonville (58 miles)?
Can Youngstown start calling itself Youngstown Pittsburgh (67 miles)?
Then Morgantown (MGW) would want to be Morgantown Pittsburgh (75 miles).
Sacramento (SAC) is 86 miles from Oakland. So it could name itself Sacramento Oakland International Airport.
Then Oakland (OAK)could name itself Oakland San Francisco International Airport.
Orlando Tampa. Tampa Orlando. Potato Potato. The list goes on.
And now we have entered absurdity. I hope that this model doesn’t spread, for then we will never know where we are landing.