Is there any reason that some airports call themselves ‘international’ airports? I mean, if you’re flying somewhere to or from outside the country, then you would already know that it’s an international airport. Plus, the term could be misconstrued as being exclusively international. So what’s the point. I’ve been wondering this ever since they added the Newark Airport stop on my train and the conductor announces: “The next stop will be Newark Liberty International Airport.” They added the “Liberty” part after 9/11.
It simply means that some of the flights out of the airport travel to different countries. Some smaller regional airports don’t have international flights and leave that moniker off.
I guess it lets you know that you could take an international flight out of that particular airport. And I’m sure the local politicians like the name better…
Among other things, it means they probably have the customs/immigration facilities to deal with people entering/exiting the country.
There is a good Wiki article on it here.
In short, it can mean many things:
- They have scheduled international flights.
- They have customs and immigration.
- They can clear cargo (but not people) from international destinations.
- They don’t put it on cause its kind of obvious they are (e.g. Heathrow).
- They aspire one day to be international, so they got the sign up early…
I think it can be a status thing, especially for small cities wanting to market thrmselves as a good place to do business. I think there are also some extra infrastrucure things you need to do to be international.
It was a big deal, for example, when the Sacramento Metroplitan Airport became the Saceamento International Airport, even though the “international” part was an occassional flight to Mexico.
The Quad Cities (a conglomeration of 5 cities clustered around the Illinois/Iowa border) has an international airport; I believe they have one scheduled flight to Toronto per day.
Note that the airport in Toronto has (or had) US customs facilities, so they can clear the passengers before departure. That means that you don’t need to have the customs and immigration facilities at the destination airport in the US.
Clow Airport in Bolingbrook, IL calls itself “Clow International Airport” as a joke because much of its original staff/pilots were immigrants from various places.
I started a thread here once asking what would be “international” about a local airstrip and had a lot of suggestions about customs desks or flights from Canada or whatever… no one guessed that you can apparently call your airport whatever in the hell you want.
I flew out of Ottawa in 2008 headed for Washington Dulles, and I cleared US Customs/Immigration right there at the Ottawa airport. The agent guy checked my passport and asked me the “standard” questions and that was that. When the plane arrived in the US, I just walked off.
No cite, but I was told that the designation indicates that the runway is constructed to handle jumbo jets, even if there are no scheduled international flights. This naming convention would aid jumbo jet pilots looking for a place for an emergency landing.
The Wikipedia page says that this is usually the case, but not necessarily so. There doesn’t seem to be any official body that defines standards for an international airport, so the fact that an airport has called themselves “international” doesn’t particularly guarantee the presence/absence of any feature/service.
Indeed. The Coutts/Ross International Airport has one runway, measuring 2900 by 80 feet, and with a turf surface. That doesn’t seem to be the kind of place that could handle a jumbo jet.
So why is Coutts/Ross an “international” airport? Because it sits right on the Canada-US border. Gotta love the warning on this page:
This thread seems like a good place to mention Greater Green River Intergalactic Spaceport, located in Green River, Wyoming.
No, you can’t use the name to determine that. Jumbo Jets require extra large runways and airports with other equipment that can handle them. The pilots would have to figure out the best one to handle them based on real data in an emergency with the help of Air Traffic Control. The list of airports with runways that can handle a true jumbo jet (Boeing 747, Airbus 380 or equivalents) isn’t that long and much shorter than the list of airports with ‘International’ in their name. As noted, there are a lot of really small airports that are designated as international especially as you get close to the Mexican and Canadian borders. There are also some airports like military bases that could handle a jumbo jet in a true emergency that don’t have ‘International’ in their name.
Interesting theory, the major flaw being that it is completely untrue. At least in the US, there is absolutely no requirement than an international airport be able to accommodate jets of any sort or size.
To expand on Broomstick’s post, there is absolutely no law, regulation, or otherwise that decides what you can call an airport in the U.S. You open an airport, you can name it pretty much whatever you want (as referenced in the Galactic Spaceport example above).
You want to call your grass strip in your back yard “Joe Bag O’Doughnuts International”, just fill out the paperwork and send it to the FAA. Voila, there you go. International airport!
Look at an aviation sectional chart and you’ll see lots of creative names for private airports. Personally, I like “Tightwaad” and “Sudden Stop” in northern Texas.
My thinking. Maybe not, I checked and it is Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
You can pre-clear US customs and immigration in quite a few Canadian airports. Pity you can’t do the opposite (pre-clear Canadian customs and immigration in an American airport).
Correct. Our county airport is an “international” despite the fact that almost nobody uses it. The joke is that a King Air from Canada once landed here, hence international.
where I’m from theres a big multinational corp with main corporate headquarters here. the airport USED to be an “international” because said corp used to have their own private customs and immigration official so they could fly various execs or whoever on the corporate jet from around the world directly here non stop without having to divert and go through say MCI or St. Louis or where ever. be damned if the general public ever got to use it. I know this because I used to work for the caterer who supplied all the meals for out going flights from here.