People from outside the area consider London to be the chunk of land inside the M25 ring road (even though its not, it’s further in – Watford’s inside the M25 and that’s not London either). Luton airport is fifteen miles outside the M25 and, really, twenty miles from the outskirts of London. You’d be pissed off if you arrived in the centre of London, thirty five miles from Luton airport, expecting to find it around the corner.
Luton’s not the only culprit though. Gatwick is as bad, especially when its website proclaims it to be “Your London airport”. Cheeky bastards, my geography’s not that bad. If it were my airport I’d have put it in the right place, or at least given it a name that made sense. You know, something like “The 20 Mile South of London, Gatwick Airport”. I’m not sure it’s a very catchy name but at least it won’t confuse the foreigners who step off the plane expecting to be able to see Big Ben only to learn they’ve got a ninety minute bus ride before that’s possible. They must end up thinking that London’s the same size as Scotland.
Thankfully they’re not all at it (well, not as blatantly anyway). Stanstead Airport is only slightly further out than Luton and it doesn’t feel the need to plonk the word ‘London’ in front of its name all the time. It does seem like it's optional for them so maybe they just can’t decide. This is curious because it claims to be the third busiest airport in the country so surely it’d benefit from the prestige of having London in its name. After all, Stanstead’s only a small place – a lot smaller than Luton and no-one would know where it is if it wasn’t for the airport.
Even the small Oxford airport claims to be London Oxford Airport which is really taking the piss. It’s fifty miles from London for god’s sake! I hope the people who name these airports are not pilots, otherwise you’re likely to get on a flight to Paris and end up in New York.
You wouldn’t have Liverpool Manchester Airport would you, so why London Luton or London Gatwick? After all Liverpool and Manchester are close to one another. The reason, I believe, is simple: status. It’s almost a subconscious thing. If you live in the south and you’re looking to book a flight then you kind of expect these facilities to be centred around the capital. You might expect to have to travel to London, but not bloody Luton (who wants to go there?) or Crawley (where Gatwick really is). Stick ‘London’ in front of the airport name and all of a sudden it’s what you expected in the first place. It works even more for foreigners (or people from Wales on their first trip over the Severn Bridge). It’s still a bloody con though because they’re not in London, or even very close.
