How would you name London airports?

Heathrow, London West
Gatwick, London South
Luton, London North
Stansted, London East
City, London Central

As somebody that works in transport I find it best to have a name that relates to the place, rather than a name such as Nelson Mandella or John Lennon. Name the terminal after them is fine, but the name should reflect where it is.

As for Southend, How about London, North Sea!

I much prefer the place naming system rather than people naming. I understand the idea of a direction naming system (London West) but I am not aware of any city that does this in the world?

Interesting how things have changed in Britain. Airports used to be name after the precise location where the airport. Newcaslte Woolsington, Bristol Lulsgate, Manchester Ringway, Edinburgh Turnhouse, Aberdeen Dyke, etc. Then every airport became International and dropped their place names. Now every airport is international (thanks to LOCOs) they’ve tried to distinguish themselves in other ways such as Durham Tees Valley, Doncaster Robin Hood, etc. But in the end, it comes down to people knowing where you are and how easy or difficult it is to get there. So myself (living in Bath), Bristol is my local airport but Heathrow, Southampton, Exeter & Cardiff are all reasonable alternatives as they are relatively easy to get to on public transport.

I tend to go with both Kiwi’s and MrMichael’s suggestions. Definitely go with Canucklad’s suggestion for EDI – I’m not joking there!

As for Luton, and this will tax the memories of many of you,
Lorraine Chase International Airport
Or, a clue here,
Leonard Rossiter International!

LuganoPirate, were you truly wafted here from paradise?

While on memories, Southampton was actually Eastleigh, I remember the local outcry when it changed, mainly from Eastleigh residents.

This really has got me thinking about how airport names fit into general conversations!
Specifically when we comfortably replace the name of the city served with the more recognised airport name. For example I would never say I’m flying to Pearson or for that matter Jomo Kenyatta tonight. Most of my friends or colleagues wouldn’t have a clue…..
On the other hand, they would understand where I was talking about for the following ,.and I’ll include my Canadian clan in this……so Gatwick probably wouldn’t feature…….
These 5 definitely would though ….
Heathrow
JFK
Schiphol
Charles De Gaulle
L.AX.although there is a huge clue &..Sadly Kai Tak would also have been included. With the exception of possibly O’Hare, I can’t think of any more ?

Oh, and BigDog Mr. Coltrane was born in Glasgow, a more apt chap for EDI would be Ronnie Corbett …..

Adding people´s names means you can end up with unwieldy airport titles. A case in point is Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas where they have kept the district where the airport is sited. Even though this is only a recent alteration people still do call it just Barajas.

On the other hand when Bilbao´s new airport terminal was opened some years ago on the north side of the runway instead of the south side the name changed from Bilbao Sondica to Bilbao Loiu. This was unnecessary in my opinion but pedantically they felt it had to reflect the district in which it was sited. Now everday usage has come round to saying Loiu.
( for those interested the pronunciation is ” low you”)

I disagree with the usage of people´s names for airports. The present titles are quite clear in London and elsewhere. Even the few posts so far on this thread show discrepancies about appropriate names.

Hi Bath_VIP
Barcelona indeed….with Fawlty Towers currently being repeated on Gold, I’d suggest they change EL Prat to Manuel International after their most famous son.
And on your translation theme, I wonder how many of us realize we land and take off at Ships Hell airport due to the amount of sailors that didn’t make it home !