University Park Airport May Get Name Change

The University Park Airport may officially become the “nickname” it has become known by as talks are ongoing about a possible name change to State College Regional Airport.

The reason? Customer confusion.

The majority of passengers seeking plane tickets into or out of University Park Airport are using “State College” as their departure or return destination, said James Meyer, executive director of the Centre County Airport Authority. He said these same passengers are seeing industry-printed and approved boarding passes and luggage tags reading “SCE,” which is the 3-letter code the airline community recognizes as University Park Airport.

“Let’s say you are in Philadelphia boarding … they never say University Park Airport,” Meyer said. “Ninety-nine percent of the time they say ‘State College.’”

The confusion extends worldwide, Meyer noted, citing a recent call from an incoming graduate student from Iran who was unsure about where he should be flying to, “University Park or State College?”

The discussion is occurring among members of the CCAA, which serves as the airport’s co-sponsor with Penn State University. For any change to the airport’s name, the university would have to agree.

The CCAA is made up of members from State College and Bellefonte boroughs, Benner and Patton townships and Centre County government.

It was established in 1978 as a successor to the State College Borough Airport Authority.

Meyer, a 14-year CCAA member, said the airport has tried to brand itself as University Park Airport since he became part of the authority, but the efforts couldn’t persuade public opinion.

“It just hasn’t caught on,” he said. “The general public has branded us as State College Airport.”

And, that, Meyer said, has caused more headaches than many may know.

“We have had people who come into the airport asking if they are at the correct place because their boarding passes read ‘State College’ and the sign out front reads ‘University Park Airport,’” Meyer said.

To compound the confusion, the “SCE” code used universally by the airline industry isn’t the three-digit code recognized by pilots and air traffic controllers in airport towers. Meyer said they recognize the FFA-registered code, “UNV.”

Meyer said air tower professionals and pilots are aware of this discrepancy, and it hasn’t caused any problems yet.

A potential solution, he said, could be to change the name of the airport to State College Regional Airport and still refer to the runway as University Park Airfield.

That potential doesn’t come without precedent.

About 1,050 miles south of State College, the busy Orlando International Airport was originally McCoy Air Force Base, where it operated under “MCO” as its three-digit code. The code continued to be recognized when the base become a civil-military facility known as Orlando-McCoy Jetport. Eventually, Air Force operations ended at the facility, and it picked up the non-official name of Orlando International Airport, which it operated under until it became official in 1976. It continues to use “MCO” as its FFA code.

“This is not something that hasn’t been done in other communities,” Meyer said. “We would just like to align our name with what everybody thinks we already are.”

The CCAA is working to gather public opinion on the matter, and Meyer said it has asked member and other local municipalities, local economic groups and Penn State University for their input on any possible changes.

The authority will next meet on Aug. 26 to hear public comment and discuss moving the process forward.

This story appears in the Aug. 5-11 edition of the Centre County Gazette.