David Kaminski-Morrow: November 2006 Archives

With all the fuss about SN Brussels Airlines and Virgin Express' will-they, won't-they prospect of bringing 'Sabena' back from the Place where Airlines are Eternally Blessed, you could be forgiven for thinking the end result - the pinstriped-sounding Brussels Airlines - is something of an anticlimax.

(Although it appears that 'anticlimax' was the last thing on the minds of those behind the promotional commercial who appear to have taken their inspiration from Debbie Does Dallas. Make up your own jokes about the red aircraft no longer being Virgin.)

Either way, if parent company SN Airholding was trying to sneak a late winner in some surreal Belgian one-downmanship competition for galactically-dull rebranding, it efforts were in vain. Because this month's prize goes to Brussels Airport which has opted to redefine unoriginality by renaming itself Brussels Airport.

"Until now the airport was lacking a real name," claims the public-relations blurb, although given that it's an airport in Brussels it seems unlikely that people have been chewing their own hands off trying to work it out.

This whole thing hasn't gone down well with some of the locals, notably the journalist at the 'Brussels Airlines' unveiling on 7 November who demanded to know why Brussels Airport couldn't be named after a prominent Belgian figure.

There's a reason for this and it's the same reason why the Internet site famousbelgians.net exists. It's a philosophical point, beyond the scope of this blog, whether someone can be famous for not being famous. But this site manages to list 259 people who seem to be giving it a damn good try.

Of course, if you have to use a website to tell people that you're well-known, it rather diminishes the point unless you're angling for an entry in Who's Nobody. And let's sidestep the inclusion of Hercule Poirot on the list. When you're so short of celebrities that you're including ones who don't exist, you're frankly taking the Pis.

There are, naturally, exceptions. Gorgeous Audrey Hepburn was born in Brussels, but Zaventem's main transport hub probably doesn't have quite enough glamour to carry off 'Holly Golightly International'. Which I guess just leaves us with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Or that guy who invented the saxophone - although his name escapes me.