Petition to rename Cardiff Airport after Princess Diana to be considered by Welsh Assembly

A petition to rename Cardiff Airport to Princess Diana International Airport will be considered by Welsh Assembly members. The petition was put forward to the house's petition committee after it managed to garner 16 signatures.

In Wales, a petition needs a minimum of 10 signatures to be discussed by the Assembly Petitions Committee. The Petitions Committee, which sat Tuesday 13 September decided to write to the Cardiff Airport to seek its views on the matter.

The petition was started by former councillor Mohammed Sarul Islam, who believed that renaming the airport would generate publicity and act as a memorial, the BBC reports.

Sarul Islam, who is the President of the Commonwealth Business and Investment Council for Wales said that renaming the airport with a well-known personality like Princess Diana would attract more visitors.

"Using Princess Diana's name would boost the airport worldwide because the name would attract people to the airport and make it more well known. As she's a very famous figure it would attract people here," he said, according to WalesOnline.

At the petitions committee held on Monday (13 September), the chairman Mike Hedges noted that it was fairly common in the rest of the world to have airports named after well-known personalities. However, he raised the issue whether in "100 years' time" someone would recognise the name.

He said there is a need for a name that is not "famous now and not famous in 50 years" like Marco Polo or Leonardo da Vinci or else the airport would have to "keep on changing" its name.

The committee noted that the Liverpool Airport was renamed the Liverpool John Lennon Airport in 2001 and in 2006, the Belfast City Airport was renamed George Best Belfast City Airport.

The name of singer Charlotte Church as a famous Welsh personality was also raised at the meeting as another potential name for the Cardiff Airport.

The BBC notes that this is not the first time that there has been calls to rename the airport, which is owned by Welsh Government. Previous names put forward include Robert Owen, the Welsh pioneer of the Cooperative Movement and Dylan Thomas.

The petition in 2014 for the Robert Owen International Airport of Wales was short lived after the minister responsible said that there were no plans to rename the airport. Two other petitions were also put forward, with one seeking for the airport's name to be changed to Awyrle Dewi Sant Airport. The other petition was deemed inadmissible "because it used language that could be deemed offensive," a research briefing dated 13 September noted.

A research briefing said: "The Welsh government has not indicated that changing the name of Cardiff Airport is one of its priorities. However, the Welsh government has indicated that changing the name of the airport would be an operational matter for Cardiff Airport.

Cardiff Airport not too keen on idea

The Cardiff Airport however does not seem to keen on the idea. It told WalesOnLine that its name will not be changed. A spokeswoman for the airport said: "We have no plans to change our name."