Birmingham Wolverhampton Airport in £300m expansion plan
I think someone is having a laugh here but this is what is being reported.
Wolverhampton Airport is planning to change its name - because it says that foreign travellers have never heard of the Black Country city.
It hopes to become Birmingham Wolverhampton Airport if it wins permission to go ahead with a £300 million expansion plan, which would see an extension of the runway and the launch of low-cost flights to Europe within three years.
Airport development director David Poyner said today that the name change was purely a matter of recognition.
"People sitting in a hotel lounge in, say, Dusseldorf or Munich, would probably say 'Where is Wolverhampton?'," Mr Poyner said.
"Adding the name Birmingham would make the region instantly recognisable. As far as we here are concerned, the name of the airport is of vital importance. I have run it past a number of local businessmen, and they think it is a great idea." he added.
Wolverhampton Airport owner Graham Hampson Silk has changed the name of the airport's holding company from Bobbington Estates to Birmingham Wolverhampton Airport, with the details lodged at Companies House.
But the move has been criticised by Birmingham International Airport managing director Brian Summers, who says the name change would create confusion.
"We are surprised that there is any intention to change the name of Wolverhampton Airport to Birmingham Wolverhampton Airport. It will only create confusion, something other airports without a clear geo- graphic identity have discovered.
"We have always acknowledged that, at some time in the future, there might be a role for Wolverhampton to develop over the longer term and serve niche markets, but nothing more," he said.
Mr Hampson Silk said it was important to promote the name Birmingham because it was instantly recognised. He said he would be following the example of airports in south-east England which had incorporated London into their titles - Luton, for instance.
"No-one abroad knows where Luton is, but they know where London is," he said.
"We are only 40 minutes down the road from Birmingham. We service Birmingham, the Black Country, Staffordshire and Worcestershire, and we are only 22 miles from the Welsh border."