Phoenix City Council votes to rename Sky Harbor's Terminal 3 after McCain

PHOENIX - The Phoenix City Council held a special meeting to decide if Terminal 3 at Sky Harbor International Airport should be re-named after Senator John McCain and they voted unanimously in favor of it.

Council members voted Wednesday after the proposal was unanimously backed by the city's citizen-led Heritage Commission, which reviews proposals to name city facilities.

McCain said in a statement that he was "deeply humbled" by the honor.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton proposed last month that Sky Harbor's Terminal 3 should become the John S. McCain III Terminal to honor the 30-year member of the U.S. Senate.

"I would hope kids ask who is that guy? I would hope they would think of something like this whether you agreed with him or not, he fights and that matters. Fighting for what you believe in, that's what I would hope they would take a way when they see the signs in a couple months," said Jim Waring, a Phoenix City Council member.

Terminal 4 is named after another long-serving Republican senator from Arizona who also ran for president -- Barry Goldwater, who died in 1998.

The 81-year-old McCain was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer earlier this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.