Trump’s Vanity Airport Name Change Plunges Travelers Into Chaos
President Donald Trump’s obsession with naming things after himself is causing chaos.
Read more Family Makes Jaw-Dropping Prehistoric Discovery on Beach Vacation
Palm Beach International Airport in South Florida has had its name since 1948, but its branding has now been erased and its name changed to President Donald J. Trump International Airport.
The switch—the first ever where an airport has adopted the name of a sitting president—has been accepted by the aviation world, but the transition has not been easy.
It has led to pandemonium for everyday folk using it, The New York Times reported, who have had to contend with updated flight plans and last-minute code changes.
Aviation groups told the newspaper that such a move is highly unusual, but not as unusual as changing the code from PBI to DJT.
To give the aviation industry time to make the changes, the transition has happened in phases.
However, the process has confused passengers who used the airport during that time, causing confusion for a month because of the difference between the airport name and the code.
According to the Times, some people received notifications from travel agents and airlines that their flight itineraries had changed.
As of Tuesday, no flights could be booked to PBI—they could on Monday.
The Daily Beast confirmed that people looking to fly to Florida on Tuesday had to search for President Donald J. Trump International (DJT), although some booking sites were still bracketing PBI after the new name to help passengers connect the two.
Read more Police Issue Statement on Human Remains Found Near Nancy Guthrie’s Home
“Assigned three-letter location identifiers are considered permanent and are almost never changed—and then only with strong justification, primarily concerning air safety,” an International Air Transport Association handout said.
The FAA said naming decisions are made at a local level, with the rebrand signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the spring.
Locals who have lived in the shadow of the triple-runway airport, located just five miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, have been discombobulated by the change too.
“It’s definitely going to take a little getting used to with the code. I’ve said PBI my entire life and I definitely will be saying it for a time moving forward,” Royal Palm Beach village resident Logan Robinson told the Times. “In a way it will always be PBI to me.”
There have also been two lawsuits and thousands of people having signed petitions against the name change. There’s even been a $30 million bomb threat.
Having obtained a comments log through the Florida Public Records Act, NOTUS found that torrents of angry people had bombarded the airport with messages, most of them negative.
One even cited Trump, saying there was a bomb at the airport and on a plane that was departing, threatening to set them off if the money wasn’t sent.
Read more Republicans Panic as Trump’s ‘Mess’ Fuels Midterm Fears
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Post Comment