crashvt03

Larger aircraft to LGA would definitely be nice. I believe all of US Airways' flights are on 50 seat CRJs with no first class. That would only be 300 seats/day to LGA which doesn't seem like enough to meet the demands. I could see US Airways putting a larger regional jet on the flights that operate at peak times (first thing in the morning as an example). I think their EMB-190 would be a good fit with 99 seats (including 11 first class), but I know they don't have many of them and are probably using them on the most profitable routes. I think a CRJ-700/900 or an EMB-170/175 would be the most likely if any increase would happen.

I think you're right that US Air was going to close or reduce the frequency of a lot of destinations out of LGA and shift those planes to DCA. Not sure if RIC was part of that or not. But I would guess that whatever their plans were a few months ago are now going to change with the slot transaction with Delta falling through. If Delta does indeed pull out completely, I would be SHOCKED if US Air left too. US Air would have a monopoly on LGA from RIC and business travelers love LGA because it is so close to downtown. I wouldn't be surprised to see them raise fares to LGA because of Delta pulling out. They couldn't raise them too much as eventually people will just go to JFK or Newark, but I would expect prices to be higher than the $75 one-way fare I saw a little while ago. Just as a FYI - I don't work for any airline or in that industry. I'm just an airline/plan geek who follows this type of stuff way too closely. So please don't think that anything I'm saying is fact. Just pure speculation on my part.

Burt, US Airways flies non-stop between RIC and LGA. According to their website, there are 6 daily flights on a random day I choose in September. So it's not like we are completely losing service to LGA. But for those frequent fliers that like to stick to certain airline alliances, losing Delta to LGA will hurt.

I heard a rumor today about Delta's service to LGA and JFK that I'm hoping Flack can shed some light on. Apparently US Airways cancelled a bunch of slot leases to Delta due to the failed slot exchange with DCA and LGA. As a result, Delta is cutting back it's LGA service to many cities, including completely abandoning RIC. Depending on the day of the week, Delta currently flies 2 or 3 flights a day to LGA and was going to increase their service to 4 or 5 flights a day in September. Due to the cancellation of RIC-LGA, I heard that Delta is going to increase their service on RIC-JFK to 4 flights a day. They currently only fly 1 flight a day and were going to increase it to 2 flights a day in September. All of this is supposed to happen sometime in November. Has anybody else heard anything about this? Flack, can you confirm whether this is happening?

You too, huh? I was on the newly paved section last Friday and got a rock to the windshield as well.

It should be noted though, that you aren't always going to be on the same plane all the way to these destinations. I've flown on a few of these flights before, and I've always had to change planes in Detroit, Atlanta, etc. Plus, I've been told that if you do need to change planes in DTW/ATL/etc and are late arriving, there is no guarantee that the connecting plane will wait for you. I haven't had this happen to me, so I'm not 100% sure this is true. One other thing to note, if you do fly one of these routes, you will only get credit for 1 segment and the number of miles between RIC and that destination, not the traditional 2 segments and possibly more miles. At least this was the case on Delta. I flew a 1-stop to Moline via DTW and only got 1 segment and 754 miles instead of 2 segments and 1000 miles. I tried to get Delta to give me the additional credit but they wouldn't. I'm not sure if this is the norm on other airlines, but thought everybody should be aware.

Burt, thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, Des Moines is about a 3 hours drive from Dubuque, IA which is where I am working right now. So I typically fly to Cedar Rapids or Moline/Quad Cities which are less than 90 minutes. I can do either Atlanta, Detroit, or Minneapolis, but with the strong potential of thunderstorms and the general delays I usually encounter through Atlanta, I think I'll stick with Minneapolis or Detroit.

Delta resumed their service to Minneapolis today. Details can be found here: http://www.flyrichmond.com/Load.php?Content=News_129 I'll be on the flight next week and I'm going to try to fly through MSP instead of Atlanta from now on for my weekly trips to Iowa.

When I was at the airport yesterday I noticed that JetBlue now has some signage up at Gate B5. This gate was previously unoccupied. Does anybody know whether JetBlue is planning on increasing service to RIC causing them to request the extra gate?

According to this link - http://news.delta.com/index.php?s=18&item=132 - The 2 new flights to LGA will be on CRJ-700. These are 70 seat regional jets. They don't currently have first class in them, but Delta is in the process of refurbishing all of them to include first class seats. I don't think this plane currently flies to LGA from RIC so I wonder if all of the flights will switch to this plane or if it will only be on the 2 new flights. I think the flights are currently on 50 seat EMB-145 or CRJ-200. The flight to JFK will be on CRJ-200 regional jets with 50 seats and no first class.

That's awesome! I'm going to have to go try those wings. I've done the Blazing challenge at Buffalo Wild Wings and couple other wing eating contests so I know what he was going through. I'll report back after trying these...

It's just a shame that American's flights to Chicago are all on the 50 seat EMB-145s. Those aren't the most comfortable planes, especially for a flight that is almost 2 hours. United uses an Airbus A319 on some of it's flights along with the EMB-145.

I read that service on Delta from RIC to Minneapolis is going to resume again in June. Looks like it is just 1 flight a day around 6:15pm on an EMB-175 which is a 76 seat regional jet with 12 First Class seats. I heard the service is only going to be seasonal with it ending in August, but I hope it does well enough that it stays year-round.

From my perspective, and I'm just a novice too, it would've been a hassle to have to hook up the vehicle that pushes the planes back, push it back, and then have the plane move to the next gate over. I'm guessing the control tower would need to get involved for something like that. So, after 10 minutes or so of trying to get the bridge hooked up, the American folks probably thought this was the easiest route. I'm sure the people on the plane were itching to get off. Also, I don't know that the next gate was in any better shape as these were the first flights to leave from those gates for the day. To compound things, just as we were leaving the gate, another American flight was pulling up (from St. Louis or Miami I presume), so that plane would've encountered the same problems if they had used our original gate. I hope all that makes sense.

Just want to throw some kudos to Flack and the rest of the staff at RIC for dealing with the snow so well Saturday night/Sunday morning. My American flight to Chicago left only a few minutes late Sunday early afternoon and I was amazed at how good of a job the crews did clearing the snow from the taxiways and runways. If only the jetbridge hadn't gotten stuck (gate agent said it was literally frozen due to the cold/snow) causing us to walk through the snow to the plane. But at least we got out.

Super 80s are MD-88s. Delta's configuration has 142 seats (14F/128C) according to their website. I would imagine 2 of them were pulled up to gates (B14 and B15 probably). I'm not sure where the other 2 would be. I don't think Delta's other gates can fit a MD-88 and are only used for regional jets. I could be wrong though.

Flack, Thanks for your response. Everything you said makes perfect sense. One last question... When will the runway construction be finished?

Question for flack or anybody else that might know... Is there really enough traffic at RIC to justify building the extra parking garage? I'm in the airport every week and I never have a problem finding a parking spot in the existing garages. By the way, every time I walk down to the Delta gates and pass the empty gates at B1, B3, and B5, I can't help but think how good Southwest or Frontier/Midwest/Republic would look there. I assume those gate areas are big enough for 737s unlike those gates on the other side which only have regional jets?

I saw that Delta is also reducing the # of flights to CVG from 4 to 2 starting in September, so it seems Delta wants to funnel most of the connecting traffic through DTW and ATL. I wonder if Delta will put a bigger plane on the flights to DTW as it's only a 50 seat CRJ-200 right now. It'd be nice to see an ERJ 175 or a DC9 on the route. Norfolk has both of those types of planes going to DTW.

It looks like MSP-RIC is cancelled. Non-stop flights are gone from the Delta and Northwest websites now. Looks like the last day of non-stops is Monday, August 17. Very disappointing to say the least.

Neither are prop planes. Both are regional jets. CRJ-200 is 50 and the E-175 is 76 according to seatguru.com.

I'm sure Detroit is a nice airport and I'll experience it firsthand next week when I go through there. I'm just bummed out if this ends up being true because I like having the 1-stop option to get to Dubuque. I obviously don't know all of the things that the airlines consider when they decide what routes to keep. But it seems to me like the RIC-MSP route has been doing pretty well at least from the flights I've been on. Hopefully flack can confirm for us whether this is true or not.

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.

flack, I heard a rumor that Delta/NW was changing their service from Richmond to Minneapolis. I heard it was being discontinued in September, but when I check the airline websites it still shows that the flight is being offered and with a bigger plane (E-175 vs. CRJ-200). Also, I've been flying to Minneapolis every week the past month and the flights are always full. Any idea what might be going on here?

I like to think that I'm an equal opportunity eater. I eat at chains and local restaurants. Do I support more one than the other? No, I don't think so. It just depends on what I'm in the mood for. If I want Italian, sometimes I'll drive to Edo's Squid or one of the other local Italian joints. But I also really enjoy Bertucci's so that get's thrown in the mix as well. I understand and agree that we need to support the local restaurants, but I'm not going to stop going to the chains either.