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MicoMiles

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Posts posted by MicoMiles

  3. Richmond International Airport

    in Richmond

    Posted

    Let's hope you're right about this Crash. I'd like to see RIC be the Southwest "hub" for all of Virginia, leaving RIC the only airport in the state offering flights to more places through Southwest. Hopefully, by doing that, Southwest would expand their service from RIC, offering more frequency of flights and to many more destinations (to include many non-stop destinations in the west).

    RIC is still not off the "chopping block"! Remember that Southwest currently offers service to 2 Virginia cities : Norfolk (ORF) and Chantilly (IAD - Dulles). I'm still with USAirways and I hear all kinds of rumors from my fellow pilots and ground support; both USAirways and others..... I'm not saying what I hear. SWA Mgmt. will look at ALL routes AirTran currently services and discontinue any repetitive service from both airlines and eliminate "under performing" cities. Since I no longer live in Richmond since my transfer, I no longer keep up to date with how things are going with RIC. If AirTran is not doing well in RIC, RIC Officials should better be concerned. The proximity of Dulles and Norfolk will also weigh in on the decision on whether or not RIC becomes a Southwest station. Both SWA stations cater to the Military/Gov't sectors.... As far as RIC being the "hub" for all of Virginia..... I doubt that will ever happen. There's a reason why Southwest hasn't offered service in RIC to this day.

  4. Richmond International Airport

    in Richmond

    Posted

    If the RIC Airport commission would offer a subsidy, Jet Blue would restore service to JFK.

    According to the news story, ticket prices to the New York market have risen sharply since Jet Blue suspended service to JFK on November 1st.

    Airport subsidization is not unknown in the industry. I may be mistaken, but I believe Newport News subsidizes AirTran.

    The Chamber of Commerce as well as AirTran, Jet Blue and Southwest reps should do a bit of arm-twisting with certain travel agencies in Richmond to encourage bookings. :whistling:

    http://www2.timesdis...at01-ar-687842/

    Burt - Basically, JetBlue wants RIC to purchase unsold seats to JFK on a daily basis to make the route profitable. Subsidies, IMO, hurt other carriers serving Richmond.

    Southwest provides/will provide service to Panama City, FL but is being subsidize by a local company (St. Joe's)

  5. Richmond International Airport

    in Richmond

    Posted

    It seems logical that Southwest would offer a few new destinations (and/or transfer points) but is it the panacea everyone seems to be expecting? Norfolk has Southwest service and yet their passenger traffic count isn't overwhelmingly higher than Richmond's figures

    Burt - ORF's passenger counts may not be overwhelmingly higher than RIC's but with only 6 airlines serving the Hampton Roads region it continues to be higher than RIC........ and you have to wonder why RIC is not in the lead with passenger counts, especially since RIC has 3 more airlines serving our region (JetBlue, AirTran and Air Jazz). IMO, I really don't see JetBlue staying in RIC especially since they will discontinue service to their "MAIN" hub, JFK. Southwest will eventually serve RIC once the merger with AirTran is complete though I don't think we will see immediate west coast service during the initial startup phase. I expect SW to serve (my guesses) the following cities from RIC : BWI, PHL, ATL, BNA, MDW.

  6. Richmond International Airport

    in Richmond

    Posted

    It would appear from this story in today's RTD by Peter Bacque that local people in a position to know believe Southwest will be flying in and out of RIC after its purchase of AirTran.

    http://www2.timesdis...rp28-ar-528631/

    If the purchase is approved as expected early in 2011, and if Richmond is among cities selected, it will occur just in time to bring the hordes of visitors from all over the country expected to view the Picasso exhibit at VMFA between February 19th and May 15th, 2011.:):thumbsup:

    The Museum is anticipating a $25 million to $30 million economic impact.

    http://static.mgnetw...so/Picasso.html

    Click "Introductory video."

    Burt,

    I highly doubt that RIC folks know what the decisions are made by Southwest Management. I believe Southwest will fly to and from RIC but don't expect any flights to the west coast anytime soon. As far as approval, I don't expect to see any Southwest flights into RIC until middle to late 2011. There are a lot of routes that need to be worked and repositioning of equipment. You also have to take into account what Southwest will do with Norfolk and Newport News/Williamsburg airports. Southwest flies to Baltimore, Chicago, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Las Vegas and Nashville out of Norfolk. Airtran flies to Atlanta, Orlando and Boston for NN/Williamsburg. IMO, NN/Williamsburg will be consolidated to Norfolk. Expect USAirways (I fly for this company) and Delta to heavily discount prices on competing routes.

  8. Richmond International Airport

    in Richmond

    Posted

    Not sure I'm hitting the mark on your cue, but the fact is that RIC-JFK will cease operating at the end of Ocober. Ridership over the last several months has been consistent with JetBlue system averages, but fare levels indicate relatively few premium ticket sold on this route. Most premium ticket purchasers are business travelers, who have shown some reluctance to adapt ticket purchasing habits on some routes.

    After JetBlue's exit from this route (the airline will continue to serve Boston 2x/day, and Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando daily), service to New YorK will look like:

    US Airways: 7x/day LaGuardia LGA

    Continental: 5x/day Newark EWR

    Delta: 4x/day JFK

    All service - per current viewable schedule - will be via 50-seat regional jets.

    Flack4RIC

    Sorry to be pessimistic, but it seems like JetBlue is on "life support" @ RIC :(

    Take out the main hub (JFK) and everything else will eventually follow!

  13. Richmond International Airport

    in Richmond

    Posted

    This would be the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen here at the Richmond airport if it does go through. I was on the 7:30am flight again this morning to Minneapolis and it was completely full. So full in fact that the crew said we were too heavy and 8 people had to get off of the plane so we could even leave. I fly to Dubuque, IA every week and the flight to Minneapolis and back is ALWAYS full or nearly full. Why would they cancel this? There are a lot of cities that are only served via Minneapolis and not Detroit.

    This is what happens when 2 large airlines merge......... Move equipment to cities where it is needed (in the case of RIC....IMO) and eliminate similar/overlapping DL/NWA flight schedules. Get ready to change planes in Detroit, which I think is one of the nicest airports in the country! Its one of my top 20 airports on my preferred line bid list.

  15. Richmond International Airport

    in Richmond

    Posted

    I can see RIC doing very well if it served a direct city such as Las Vegas, LA, Pheonix, SLC, Denver, Seattle or San Francisco. Try me airlines! I bet I'm right.

    eandslee - I like how you are optimistic about west coast flights out of RIC..... But unfortunately there probably isn't enough O/D traffic out of RIC to warrant airlines to offer direct flights to the west coast cities. Believe me when I say that all the airlines serving RIC know where people are flying to. When there is consistent demand for a particular city/cities, airlines will respond depending on the availability of equipment & scheduling. Otherwise, you're going to fly to a hub for a connection.

  16. Richmond International Airport

    in Richmond

    Posted

    In this story about hotel construction in Metro Richmond a spokesperson for Shamin Hotels says RIC has non-stop flights to 8 of the 10 largest metropolitan areas in the US.

    6 metro areas are located on the east coast with 2 located in Texas. A lot of cities the same size and/or smaller than Richmond have the same airline services utilizing both mainline and regional equipment...

    RIC would stand out if there was direct service at least 2 west coast cities: SAN, LAX, SFO, DEN, SEA, PHX, LAS, PDX or SLC.

  21. Richmond International Airport

    in Richmond

    Posted · Edited by MicoMiles

    Thanks for the information about that Flack. I also wanted to point out that I did some searching on the Internet this past weekend and discovered that Houston's Hobby Airport looks very similar (in shape and size) to RIC, yet they are able to perform so many more aircraft operations. What I'm saying is that I understand now that RIC still holds the capacity to expand with their current configuration (runway, gate numbers, etc.). Now it's just a matter of getting all the operations! I also wanted to point out that they have a really neat web site that displays, very nicely, their Master Plan and they have a cool photo gallery of their airport (something I would like to see RIC do). Here's a link to their photo gallery:

    http://www.fly2houston.com/houPhotoGallery

    And here's where you can find their Master Plan:

    http://www.fly2houston.com/houMasterPlan

    Do you thing RIC can do something like this?

    "Houston's Hobby Airport looks very similar (in shape and size) to RIC, yet they are able to perform so many more aircraft operations."

    HOU is much larger than RIC! The pictures are deceiving.

    Do you think RIC can do something like this?

    If the Richmond Metropolitan Area had the same population of count of Houston's 5.6Million. Houston is the 4th largest city in the United States. Houston definitely has the population to support 2 scheduled airports within the region.

  23. Richmond International Airport

    in Richmond

    Posted

    Great question Burt! I forgot all about this plan, but thank goodness the plan failed. I don't think I would have liked such a plan. What needs to happen, I believe, is that one of the airports between Richmond, Williamsburg, and Norfolk needs to come out on top and become the dominate one or else all three airport will remain relatively small since people in the area will divide up between the three. Of course, I'm hoping that the dominate one is RIC.

    Technically, PHF and ORF are both Hampton Roads airports. Both serve civilian and military passenger traffic (Norfolk Naval Base, Oceana Naval Air Station, Langley AFB, Fort Eustis and Fort Story).

  24. Richmond International Airport

    in Richmond

    Posted

    As the chart above shows, RIC is expected to fill about 7,000 seats daily while comparable cities are anticipating decreases.

    I agree with Eric about the passive/aggressive nature of the region. Perhaps the status quo has sustained the local economy over generations, but it would be gratifying to see a more "can do" attitude.

    I'm sure the new facility could easily handle double the anticipated loads. Further, the argument that RIC is in the shadow of three major airports to our immediate north, each of which is operating at near capacity, does not diminish possibilities of "focus" attention locally, IMO. Rather, the situation should enhance Richmond's attractiveness as a major airport.

    Flack, what effect has the relocation of Virginia Air National Guard had on airport plans? One would think it could be utilized as a major freight port, or perhaps even as an important International terminal.

    This may sound rediculous, but has anyone on the airport board considered hiring the Martin Agency to promote RIC? It is among the top National ad agencies and is located in Shockoe Slip. I bet a quarter they could stir up a lot of interest in "flying Richmond."

    Respectfully, RIC will never be considered a "major" airport. The airport does not have the infrastructure. More importantly, where will the money come from to make RIC a "major" airport? There are a lot of airports much larger than RIC that are completely underutilized. DFW in Dallas may be shutting down one of their terminals because of airline cutbacks. St. Louis is another airport with facilities capable of handling a "hub" status as it did for TWA and AA. What about Pittsburgh??? And don't forget, airlines have to pay landing & gate fees in order to utilize an airport. With so much excess airport inventory (terms & gates), what makes you think that an airline CEO will consider RIC as a hub or focus city when other cities/airports have the facilities ready right now. It would take many many years just for RIC to compete. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a merge between 2 or more legacy carriers within the next 5 years. If it does happen, expect the number of flights reduced in RIC as well as many other cities. I fly for USAirways and I see a lot of airports larger and smaller than RIC with empty gates that are suffering from the airline cutbacks.

    Lets keep RIC the way it is and support the airlines that serve the airport.

  25. Richmond International Airport

    in Richmond

    Posted · Edited by MicoMiles

    Welcome, flack4. I like the new web site. Congratulations to those who built it.

    Also Erick (a/k/a Eandslee) has contributed some sharp insight above.

    I have read that Fed Ex is mulling selection among three southern cities to establish a regional hub. Why is not RIC among the competitors for this business?

    It's good to see Air Tran and Jet Blue adding cities to their schedules, but does that mean that they will just shuffle flights from other destinations?

    Thanks to all for their contributions.

    FedEx has already chosen Greensboro (PTI) as the new hub.

    Link: http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories.../13/daily1.html

    Link: http://www.highpointedc.com/fedex.cfm

    Or are you referring to FedEx Ground?

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