GEORGETOWN, DELAWARE (6/16/2015) Sussex County Council acted today to rename Sussex County Airport to Delaware Coastal Airport.
The name change, which requires notification to the Federal Aviation Administration, is expected to be in effect by the end of the summer.
“Delaware Coastal Airport is a new name for what is, in many ways, becoming a renewed, modernized transportation hub here in Sussex County,” County Administrator Todd F. Lawson said. “We believe this new name better reflects what and where we are; it clearly puts us in the mid-Atlantic region, and we are confident the Delaware Coastal Airport brand will help draw more business, more visitors, and further drive economic development in Sussex County.”
The move follows follows a decade-long, $40 million modernization which included extending the main runway and leasing new hangar space.
Once official, signage and marketing materials will carry the new Delaware Coastal Airport name and logo – an airplane that evokes the likeness of a fish sweeping across sunset and surf.
A consultant’s report in 2013 recommended a name change, saying such a move would better position the airport within the region to make it more marketable and recognized within the flying community, said county Communications Director Chip Guy.
The new brand and logo were developed, with input from county staff, by Milford resident Ben Muldrow of Greenville, S.C.-based Arnett Muldrow & Associates. The name and logo have received endorsements from the county’s Airport Advisory Committee, local pilots, and community business leaders, as well, Guy said.
“For years, the airport has had a bit of an identity crisis,” Lawson said in a prepared statement. “To some, it’s the
Sussex County Airport, others call it the Georgetown Airport, but those names don’t make clear
where Sussex County is and what the area has to offer. Delaware Coastal Airport does that.”
Lawson recounted a case of mistaken identity when a pilot landed at the airport, thinking the location was another Sussex County – in neighboring New Jersey.
The airport, built in the 1940s and utilized at one point by the U.S. Navy, is a general aviation facility popular with pilots of small aircraft and corporate jets, recording some 35,000 landings and takeoffs annually.