A newly designed international airport is planning to label its gates. Each gate must be assigned a letter from the alphabet from A to M (13 in all), and a number from 1 to 15. To avoid confusion, any two gates must be assigned a different letter, or a different number (or both). What is the maximum number of distinct gates that the airport can have?

To find the maximum number of distinct gates, we need to consider the total number of possible combinations of letters and numbers.

Since there are 13 letters (from A to M) and 15 numbers (from 1 to 15), the number of distinct gates can be calculated as the product of these two numbers:

Total number of distinct gates = Number of letters * Number of numbers

Total number of distinct gates = 13 * 15 = 195

Therefore, the maximum number of distinct gates the airport can have is 195.