Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a bill into law approving the renaming of Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) so that it can bear the name of the current US President, Donald Trump. The move comes after lawmakers in the Sunshine State voted in favor of the name change, and, with DeSantis having now signed it into law, the alteration is a step closer to becoming a reality. However, it will still require approval from the FAA.

While PBI is only the sixth-busiest airport in the US federal state of Florida, it has close ties to the current President on account of being located close to his Mar-a-Lago residence. With this in mind, Trump has also attempted to trademark the new name of the airport, with multiple versions said to be covered.

Signed Into Law

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Last month, CNN reported that lawmakers in Florida had voted in favor of renaming the airport in West Palm Beach, Florida, after US President Donald Trump, with Florida’s House of Representatives seeing 81 votes for the motion compared to just 31 against it. Following this, the bill was passed in the state Senate by a margin of 25 to 11. Now, according to The Guardian, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed this bill into law.

The news broke yesterday, with The Guardian noting that the name would be ‘President Donald J Trump International Airport.’ Earlier this year, at the time when Florida lawmakers first voted in favor of the motion, Trump also took the step of filing trademark applications for this name, as well as other proposed versions. Despite strong support for the bill, it came under fire from Democratic representatives, with Congresswoman Lois Frankel saying:

“It’s unfair that the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature ignored the voices of Palm Beach County by pushing forward a bill to rename Palm Beach International Airport without giving County residents a real opportunity for input.”

Awaiting Final Approval

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While the news of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s approval of the name change marks a key step forward in the attempts to have PBI Airport renamed after US President Donald Trump, that isn’t to say that the deal has been completely sealed. Indeed, according to The Guardian, the name change will only come into effect on July 1 in the event that it receives its final approval, which will have to come at a nationwide level.

Indeed, CNN’s previous reporting on the matter highlights the fact that the Federal Aviation Administration will have the final say in the matter. Still, given that the FAA is an agency of Trump’s US government within the Department of Transportation, it would seem that this will be something of a formality.

Of course, if approved, PBI won’t be the only US airport named after one of the country’s Presidents. John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in New York City is arguably the most notable, but Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) also feature.

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PBI Airport In A Nutshell

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According to present scheduling data made available by Cirium, an aviation analytics company, Palm Beach is the sixth-busiest airport in Florida by flights. Indeed, this April, it will handle a grand total of 3,259 scheduled one-way passenger departures, putting it ahead of the likes of Jacksonville, Sarasota, and Pensacola, but lagging behind larger hubs such as Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, and Fort Myers (Southwest Florida).

As detailed in the table above, JetBlue, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines are the airport’s top carriers, with United (502 flights) and Southwest (239) rounding out the top five. Its remaining carriers each have fewer than 100 scheduled one-way departures this April. They include Breeze Airways (81), Frontier Airlines (76), Spirit Airlines (53), Allegiant (37), Air Canada (35), Avelo Airlines (32), Bahamasair (21), and Porter Airlines (seven).