Mayor's office: 'No future plans' to rename Austin airport after President Johnson
AUSTIN (KXAN) — There are "no future plans" to move forward with a proposal to rename Austin-Bergstrom International Airport after President Lyndon B. Johnson, a spokesperson for Mayor Kirk Watson told KXAN.
The LBJ Foundation proposed the renaming to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act, which President Johnson signed into law in 1964.
"We've had a preliminary conversation with foundation officials about this last year," a spokesperson for the mayor told KXAN. "There are no future plans to move forward."
A spokesperson for the LBJ Foundation referred KXAN to the mayor's office without adding further comment.
"Lyndon Johnson was enormously proud of his Central Texas roots and spent much of his political career advocating for the advancement of the region and its citizens before becoming president," said Mark Updegrove, president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation, in October.
"President and Mrs. Johnson would surely be honored at the prospect of the airport being named for him," Updegrove said. "The LBJ Foundation stands ready to work with the mayor’s office, the city of Austin, and members of the Austin community toward its realization."
AUS is currently named for Capt. John Bergstrom, the first native Austinite killed in action during World War II. Bergstrom was serving as an administrative officer with the 19th Bombardment Group in the Philippines when he was killed on Dec. 8, 1941, at the age of 34.
The Del Valle Airfield, located at the site of current-day AUS, was renamed the Bergstrom Army Airfield in March 1943, before becoming the Bergstrom Air Force Base in 1948, when the Air Force split from the Army, according to the airport’s website.
The base was decommissioned in the 1990s and later became Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in 1999, after the closure of Robert Mueller Municipal Airport.
One of AUS' two runways is already named for President Johnson. City Council dedicated the west runway to LBJ in 1999. The east runway is dedicated to former Congressman J. J. "Jake" Pickle.