Interesting how many major airports are named after important people. The UK has one major airport and several medium sized ones like Gatwick and other smaller ones like Liverpool John Lennon, plus many small airfields, mostly built during WW2.
A Turkish guy, proud of his country, told me one day: We (Turkish) are the best in this field because Istanbul airport is the biggest airport in Europe (even if some people consider that Turkey does not belong to Europe). I replied to him that it's because there's only ONE international airport in Istanbul (so all the traffic is concentrated in a single airport) while there are TWO international airports in London and Paris (so each airport taken separately gets smaller). The French government even wanted to build a THIRD international airport near Paris, but the environmental movements were violently opposed and this decision was abandoned. In addition, why be proud of having the largest airport in Europe knowing that airports only create nuisances: noise and pollution. Personally I prefer small airports.
