What’s in a name?

It’s funny how when Singapore wanted a name for its budget terminal, it held a competition and the winning entry was – you guessed it “budget terminal.”

And when the authorities wanted a name for the new downtown at Marina Bay, they went on a search and finally ended up with, hold your breath, Marina Bay.

So come August, there’s going to be a luxury airport terminal at Singapore’s Changi airport and I suspect, learning from the past two examples, they might have thought, “better decide on the name”.

Jet Quay CIP terminal – that’s the name. Yes I can hear you; they should have held a naming contest.

I guess answers could be sought at a press conference that’s to be held next week but who’s going to know what CIP is? Perhaps if you don’t know what the acronym means, maybe you’re not a CIP so you better stick with the budget terminal beside it.

If you are a CIP, I’ll cringe at the thought of having to explain to people what CIP means (If you’re a CIP, people would know). I guess calling it VIP would have been too pretentious.

And why “Quay” - a maritime term for an airport? (Guess they were being clever in combining an aviation word with a maritime word).

And surely they must have realised that JetStar Asia is a low-cost carrier based in Singapore. Calling it Jet – while it would make those at JetStar Asia grin from ear to ear – is surely a cause for confusion.

I can imagine the CIP vehemently protesting being chauffer-driven to Jet Quay terminal - “but I’m flying first-class in Singapore Airlines!”

Please let the air traffic controllers and pilots (especially JetStar Asia) flying into Singapore know that please!