Northwest Florida Regional Airport in Okaloosa
For those who are still getting used to calling the former Okaloosa-Walton College by its new moniker of Northwest Florida State College, here's a another one: Okaloosa Regional Airport has a new name.
Okaloosa County Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved renaming the airport Northwest Florida Regional Airport.
"Overall, with the rebranding of the airport I think we will open our doors to more traffic," said Greg Donovan, the county's airports director. "I think people nationally and even internationally, for that matter, will have a clearer understanding of what kind of services our airport provides."
While the name change became official with Tuesday's vote, Donovan said it could be a year before all the signage, letterheads and other items with the airport's name and logo are updated. He expects the main signage to be updated within the next month.
The cost to change the airport's name, which Donovan estimated could be tens of thousands of dollars, will be paid through the airport fund.
"I'm sure it's going to take a while to catch everything," he said.
The new name comes a little more than two weeks after Pensacola Regional Airport changed its name to Pensacola Gulf Coast Regional Airport on Aug. 14.
Donovan said the Okaloosa airport has increased the amount of money budgeted for advertising and marketing next year, knowing it wanted to go forward with the name change.
"Really, what it comes down to is finding a nomenclature or name that assists the traveler better, helps them to understand our location," Donovan said. "Having a geographical reference that easily communicates our service area is very important.
"We also want to embrace other counties," he added. "(The airport's focus area) doesn't stop at the county line. A lot of our customers come from Walton or Santa Rosa, Escambia or Bay counties."
Northwest Florida Regional Airport's three-digit airport code will remain VPS with the name change.