Bradley International Airport to keep its name

One year after the Connecticut Airport Authority raised the possibility of changing the name of Bradley International Airport, the agency decided to keep the name intact.

The facility was named in honor of Lt. Eugene M. Bradley of Antlers, Oklahoma, a 24-year-old who was killed in August 1941 when his aircraft crashed during a dogfight training drill at what was then known as the Windsor Locks Army Air Base. The military base became a commercial airport in 1947, carrying Bradley”™s surname.

The airport agency conducted a study of the benefits and challenges in changing the name and concluded that airports that are renamed do not see significant increases in passenger traffic based on a renaming. The agency also acknowledged that local veterans groups expressed displeasure over the possible erasure of Bradley”™s name from the facility.

Kevin Dillon, executive director of the authority, told the Hartford Courant that his agency may return to the possibility of a new airport name in the future.

“We”™re not going to rule it out completely and forever,” Dillon said. “We”™re going to continue to monitor the effectiveness of our marketing program and our advertising programs to see if we feel we are getting sufficient traction by remaining Bradley International Airport.”