Mar. 12—While the name of the West Virginia native who became the first pilot to achieve supersonic flight will continue to play a role in identifying the airport serving the Charleston area, the rest of the airport's name may be in store for some major tweaking.
The idea of a possible name change for the airport came up on on Wednesday, in a discussion on airport branding that took place during a meeting of Yeager's marketing committee, according to Dominique Ranieri, the Charleston airport's chief operating officer and assistant director.
"Our air service consultants and others who work for out-of-state entities who do business with the airport have been telling us for years that not having our geographical location in our name causes problems," Ranieri said on Thursday.
Except for those who live in Yeager's service area, business people and recreational travelers have no way of connecting the name Yeager Airport with Charleston or West Virginia, Ranieri said.
"This year, with the addition of a new U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility here, along with becoming the gateway to America's newest national park, we thought there was an exciting opportunity to help us add more air service and attract more passengers," she said. "Our air service consultants have advised us that we would benefit from a change in the airport's name that stresses its location, along an 'international' designation that the presence of the new Customs building makes possible."
Prospective name changes being discussed include West Virginia Yeager International Airport and Yeager West Virginia International Airport. Use of ' Charleston' in the title is not considered a good branding decision, since it would maintain a level of confusion that already exists due to the presence of Charleston airports in both West Virginia and South Carolina.
"The name 'Yeager' will never come out of this airport's name," Ranieri said, adding that Charleston airport officials are considering commissioning a replica of the Bell X-1 rocket plane Yeager piloted during his historic flight to be built and displayed near the entrance to the passenger terminal.
A number of other U.S. airports have identities that include someone's name, including St. Louis Lambert International Airport, Louisville Mohammad Ali International Airport, Chicago O'Hare International Airport and Syracuse Hamilton International Airport.
Airports bearing the "international" designation need not offer nonstop flights to foreign destinations, but they do need on-site Customs facilities for passengers traveling on border-crossing private aircraft or charter flights where passengers can have passports and visas checked and authenticated.
The presence of a Customs facility would be a selling point for any air carriers considering nonstop flights to foreign airports from Charleston.
West Virginia is one of only six states that currently lacks an airport with an "international" designation, and Charleston is the only West Virginia city with a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility at its airport.
Any name change would have no effect on the Charleston airport's Federal Aviation Administration-issued CRW airport code. Yeager Airport's governing board is expected to discuss the name-change proposal during its March 24 meeting.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelhammer
@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5169 or follow
@rsteelhammer on Twitter.
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