From Silvio Berlusconi to Cristiano Ronaldo: What airports are called

City trips Airports

John F. Kennedy and Charles de Gaulle – After whom airports are named

Airports are often renamed, as happened just a few weeks ago in Milan: the former Malpensa airport now bears the name of the former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi. Around 400 airports worldwide are named after people – mostly men who are not always uncontroversial.

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There was protest against the renaming of Milan airport after Silvio Berlusconi

Source: picture alliance/ZUMAPRESS.com/Stefano Porta

Malpensa was once the name of a lonely estate on a sour meadow 50 kilometers from Milan. Nobody would know the place today if two industrialists hadn’t come up with the idea of ​​building an airport there 75 years ago. The name could soon be forgotten again. Because: Since July 11, Malpensa has officially been called Silvio Berlusconi, after the recently deceased four-time former prime minister and convicted tax evader.

The new name is controversial, but not unusual. About 400 Airports are named after people all over the world, almost always men and often controversial ones. Examples: Most recently, Abu Dhabi International Airport was renamed Zayed International Airport in February. In Nigeria, Minna Airport was named after Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. And by 2025 at the latest, Oklahoma City Airport is set to be named after US entertainer Will Rogers.

In France The Aéroport Lyon-Saint Exupéry honours an aviation personality who Deutschland known mainly as the author of the story “The Little Prince”. And in Krakow in Poland The airport proudly bears the name of Pope John Paul II. Pisa is known for its Leaning Tower, where you land within sight of Galileo Galilei Airport; in Northern Ireland’s capital Belfast, the airport was named after footballer George Best 20 years ago.

In the USA Some airports are already being given the names of former presidents while they are still alive – such as Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport and the small Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas. But the Americans can do things differently. They use names of musicians, such as the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, and of actors, such as the John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, California.

A plane lands at John Lennon Airport in Liverpool

Quelle: picture alliance/empics/Peter Byrne

Elsewhere, airports are often decorated with the names of nation-founders and national heroes. In Prague, there is the Václav Havel Airport, in Tel Aviv you start at Ben Gurion International. Explorers and war heroes are also welcome, for example in Venice at Marco Polo International and in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar at Chinggis Khan International Airport. You will receive a comparatively friendlier welcome with stage names: for example at Frédéric Chopin Airport in Warsaw, Pablo Picasso Airport in Málaga, John Lennon Airport in Liverpool and Salzburg Airport WA Mozart.

In Germany, some names did not prevail

New names are everywhere, but they don’t always catch on. This is shown by German airports, which almost all have a local hero. München is officially called Franz Josef Strauß, Berlin’s former problem airport after Willy Brandt and Hamburg Airport after Helmut Schmidt. Bremen is named after Hans Koschnick, Köln that of Konrad Adenauer, Nuremberg’s airport is called Albrecht Dürer, and that of Stuttgart is called Manfred Rommel.

Hardly anyone calls Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt

Source: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-ZB/Soeren Stache

Of course, even the operating companies hardly use these names on their websites anymore. And travelers certainly don’t. This is probably why attempts to name Frankfurt Airport (the real one, not the one at Hahn) after Helmut Kohl and Düsseldorf Airport after Johannes Rau failed in the bud.

New York with JFK – John F. Kennedy Airport and Paris with CDG – Charles de Gaulle Airport were more successful. The US capital has had Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport since 1998. This contains two recommendations for future airport renamers: firstly, preferably rename an airport where there are several airports (London has five). Secondly, change the airport abbreviation at the same time, which is of course not so easy for existing airports.

The airport in Atchison in the US state of Kansas is named after Amelia Earhart, who was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928

Quelle: picture alliance/akg-images

Women are clearly underrepresented in airport names. Research by the travel portal Netflights and Condé Nast Traveler found that 95 percent of airports are named after men and not a single one after a woman of color. One of the few lucky women is Amelia Earhart, the first female transatlantic pilot; the airport in Atchison, Kansas, is named after her. Other female names include Mother Teresa, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Indira Gandhi.

A notable exception can also be found in Istanbul in Turkey: The particularly Airport preferred by low-cost airlines is called Sabiha Gökçen International Airport. She is, after all, the first female fighter pilot in the world. It probably didn’t hurt that she was an adopted child of the country’s founder, Kemal Atatürk.

To mark the renaming of Madeira Airport, a bust of Cristiano Ronaldo was unveiled, which was met with much ridicule. The artist later made a new one

Quelle: picture alliance/AA/Stringer

So how do you manage to get an airport named after yourself? Being a dead man definitely helps. Most airports are named after deceased men. Exceptions include Lech Walesa Airport in Gdansk and Madeira Airport International Cristiano Ronaldonamed after the very lively footballer. Being a creative genius seems to be the next best option after being political: around a fifth of airports are named after artists. And if that’s not an option, then the best thing to do is do something extraordinary in the cockpit of an airplane.

But you can also simply hire an advertising agency. The agency Brandroot, based in San Diego, California, even operates a fully automatic name generator on the Internet with the lovely title “How to name an airport”. Of course, there is no guarantee that the official aviation authority will recognize it.