Sunday, March 15, 2009
Yesterday Portland Press Herald writer and iFriend Justin Ellis had a good line about the naming of the Portland International Jetport:

    "Can we please not call it that until we have more international flights coming though? Also, is it just me or does Jetport have the wrong tone? You expect to see Tony Stark at a Jetport."

Right on, right on. Reminds me of the second Newlywed in Dubai post ever (see Safe in Dubai, pt. 1):

    "I use the full name only because it's the biggest joke in the universe. 'International Jetport'. Jeesh. The place only goes up to Gate #11 - and I don't think I've ever seen gates #1-5. It's the smallest airport I've ever been to. It makes Burbank (or the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport, or the Bob Hope Airport, or whatever the hell they're calling it now) look like Chicago O'Hare."

Of course, that was before Iron Man came out, back when most of you wouldn't get a Tony Stark reference. Not that I even harped on the "Jetport" part. But it does sound a little Tomorrowland, doesn't it? A little 1950s retro-future. Buck Rogers and stuff. Like its full name used to be "Portand International Jetport 2000".

Speaking of, I wonder if we could get the FAA/IATA airport code changed to "PIJ"? I just checked, it's available. Pocatello Regional Airport in Pocatello, Idaho is "PIH" and Glasgow Prestwick International Airport in Scotland is "PIK", but no "PIJ" is listed.

The "PWM" is from the original name "Portland-Westbrook-Municipal", by the way. You know, before the wide array of international jets began frequenting the airport on a regular basis and thus the name just had to be updated ...
 
posted by Josh at 4:44 PM |


2 Comments:


At 9:45 PM, Blogger Shep

There is some sort of service to Halifax. I think. At least there was one about a month ago. But Portland to Halifax services usually last a month, so it should be ending it's run soon.

 

At 7:55 AM, Blogger Josh

Oh, that's true, I'm not doubting that there are flights to Canada, thus making them sorta international.

But are there enough flights to tout that in the name?

Thus I say that something like "Portland Regional Airport" or "Stark Industries' Portland Jetport" makes more sense ...