The agency that oversees Bradley International Airport is expected to vote in March to launch a study on a possible name change for Connecticut’s largest airport.
A name change — talked about, but not acted on at various times in the past three decades — is part of the strategic goals for the Connecticut Airport Authority, which oversees Bradley and the state’s five, general aviation airports.
Today, the push comes not from the desire to honor a person — as was the case with former Gov. Ella T. Grasso in the early 1980s — but from a necessity to put an airport with aspirations for expanded transcontinental and international routes on the map.
“If you can’t geographically distinguish yourself, it makes it hard to identify yourself internationally,” said Kevin Dillon, the authority’s executive director.
A name that says something more
Dillon said a name change would face certain challenges, including being respectful to the memory of World War II veteran 2nd Lt. Eugene M. Bradley, who is the airport’s namesake.
It is too early to say when a name change proposal might be made, Dillon said. But any study might include determining how well travelers — especially those from the West Coast or from abroad — know the location of Bradley, a key factor in attracting bookings.
Right now, 40 percent of traffic at Bradley originates outside of the Hartford area, Dillon said.
Dillon said one option might be keeping the Bradley name, but pairing it with a geographical name. That happened, he said, in a New Hampshire airport where he was once director. In 2006, the name of Manchester Airport was changed to “Manchester–Boston Regional Airport” to increase its visibility to travelers around the country.
While it’s uncertain when, or even if, the name might change, it is clear that it will be a focus in the year ahead.
The authority’s strategic plan for 2019 calls for “legislators and community stakeholders to explain potential benefit of a potential Bradley Airport name change effort, and continue taking steps to facilitate such future initiative.”
Who was Bradley?
Today, Bradley International Airport serves 7 million people a year. But the airport got its start in 1940 as a U.S. Air Force base. It also served as a camp for German prisoners of war during World War II.
The 1,700 acres of farmland was initially known as the Windsor Locks Army Air Base, but soon took the Bradley name after a tragedy above the field.
Bradley, an Oklahoma airman who had only recently arrived in Connecticut with his wife, was participating in a mock dog-fighting practice over the airfield, according to the website Connecticut Explored.
Bradley apparently blacked out in a cockpit under extreme G-forces at 10,000 feet and crashed his P-40 into the woods and died.
A few weeks later, the Hartford Times newspaper urged in an editorial that the air base be renamed for the pilot and the push garnered public support. In 1942, the airfield took the Bradley name.
Why it’s not Grasso International Airport
After the death of Grasso, a politically tough governor but popular with the public, there was a move in the state legislature to rename the airport in her honor. Grasso was a Windsor Locks native, who died in 1981 from cancer at the age of 61.
The proposal, as reported in The Courant, attracted some staunch opposition from war veterans and others who were determined to keep Bradley’s memory intact.
Bradley’s widow, by then 60 and living in Texas, also objected, as reported in a local newspaper: “I think Gov. Grasso was a fine, fine woman. But those fighter pilots started that place.”
As the controversy ensued, Thomas Grasso, the former governor’s widower, urged the plan be scrapped.
“If Ella were alive, she would want no controversy over keeping the airport in the name of Lt. Bradley,” Grasso said. “We should keep his name on it as a monument to this war hero.”
The idea was resurrected in 2007 and has been the subject of editorials and letters to the editor over the years.
But the name has remained.
Aiming for a bigger, better future
The first commercial airline — Eastern Airlines — came to Bradley in 1947. Today, Aer Lingus, Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest and Spirit fly out of Bradley. Frontier Airlines and Via Airlines also will begin service later this year.
This year, the airport is looking to further expand domestic destinations serviced out of Windsor Locks, with the top priorities being Seattle and Jacksonville. Other desired destinations are Austin, Milwaukee, Nashville and the Caribbean island of Jamaica.
The airport also is seeking to embark on a $1.4 billion, 20-year expansion plan, including a new transportation center and terminal.
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.
