SF name change bidmiffed airport boss

Londonderry Sinn Féin councillor Elisha McCallion proposed City of Derry Airport be named after Earhart back in March but a Council option to that effect was rejected by the SDLP, DUP and the UUP.

Now the Sentinel can reveal that the Managing Director of the City of Derry Airport Damien Tierney wasn’t even asked about the proposal.

Westminster records show that Mr Tierney told members of the Northern Ireland Affiars Committee that he was disappointed not to have been consulted prior to the sudden proposal.

Asked by Independent Unionist MP Lady Sylvia Hermon if he had been “disappointed, neutral or relieved” after the bid’s failure, Mr Tierney said: “I am slightly disappointed in how it was managed.

“It was proposed though a motion at Derry City Council, but the proposers had not consulted with the airport. That is where our objection originally came from.”

He revealed that the first thing he heard about the move was through the local media in Londonderry.

“You had not heard about the proposal until it was made?” asked Lady Hermon.

Mr Tierney replied: “No, we had not. We first saw it in the press. That is local politics for you. We had considered it before that at a board meeting and we had come up with a number of issues that it might have raised and which might have been negatives for the airport.

“However, we are happy to sit down and have a discussion with the politicians who want to promote it. If they can persuade us that the hurdles, which we see as being in the way, can be moved aside, there is absolutely no reason why we would not consider it.

“However, there has to be a wider discussion than a political decision taken within Derry City Council. It has to involve the new structures that Derry City Council has put in place for the airport.”

Ms McCallion has since vowed to continue to press for the name change stating: “The rationale behind the proposal was to maximise the tourism potential by adding an additional dimension to the marketing of the Region while the focus of tour operators is on Derry in the run-in to City of Culture 2013. “Promoting stronger links with the USA and building on them, be they tourist, educational or business in preparation of City of Culture can only be beneficial.”

One stumbling block that could pose a problem for our civil leaders, however, is the already existing Amelia Earhart Airport in Atchison, Kansas.

But ‘Amelia Earhart Airport’ would hold the attraction of defusing any potential political rows over which community’s icons should or should not be honoured.

Another unlikely alternative name for the airport would be ‘Italo Balbo Airport.’

Back in 1933 the red carpet was rolled out for Benito Mussolini’s right hand man who stopped here on an epic propaganda flight to the US.

The RAF performed celebratory loop-the-loops as they escorted, Fascist General Italo Balbo, and his 24 seaplane Italian Armada into Lough Foyle at around noon on July 2, 1933.

He was on his way from Rome to Chicago to attend a Century of Progress event for Italy and Fascism.

Thousands of people apparently turned out to greet the Armada both at its moorings near Culmore and in Guildhall Square and Brooke Park which were bedecked with flags and bunting to greet his arrival.

There are currently no plans to commemorate Balob’s visit on its 80th anniversary during Londonderry UK City of Culture next year.