crashvt03
-
Posts
64 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Project Database
User Guide
Store
Events
Posts posted by crashvt03
-
-
Well, I'm totally rattled. I would have sworn I read within recent months that US Air was planning to pull all its RIC flights out of LGA and turn over some LGA slots to Delta.
So, US Air will contunue serving LaGuardia, right?
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.
-
Crashvt03, If Delta cut RIC/LGA service, would that mean there would be absolutely no commercial nonstop flights between the two airports by any airline?
That's a horrible thought to contemplate! Could Continnental pick up some of the slack by adding nonstops to Newark Liberty?
I just checked http://www.flyrichmond.com and see that United has a few one-stop flights to LGA -- 3 via IAD and 2 via PHL.
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?
-
Yes!! Other than the rock in my windshield, that has made my commute to Charlottesville much more tolerable.
You too, huh? I was on the newly paved section last Friday and got a rock to the windshield as well.
-
Burt, most of these are "less than daily," but there may be more one-stop destination/origination points than you might have imagined:
Outbound, from RIC to:
Colorado Springs, Phoenix, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Kalamazoo, Nashville, Burlington, Charleston, Cedar Rapids, Daytona Beach, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Memphis, New Orleans, Fort Myers, South Bend, Sarasota, St. Louis, Edmonton, Omaha, Providence, Birmingham, Greenville-Spartanburg, Greensboro, Raleigh-Durham & Tallahassee.
Inbound to RIC:
Austiin, Asheville, Nashville, El Paso, Sioux Falls, Ft. Wayne, Greensboro, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Harrisburg, Chicago Midway, Memphis, New Orleans, Monterrey (NL), Omaha, Ft. Myers, Sacramento, Traverse City & Ft. Walton Beach.
The list of one-stop flights changes with monthly schedule updates. We tend to have 2-3 Caribbean onestops during the winter, for example.
Flack4RIC
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.
-
Crash, I have a friend from Iowa and last week she flew the one daily non-stop between LGA and Des Moines. I think she told me it was Delta.
So that might be another option for you as well as ATL and MSP.
PS: I think she told me that departure from LGA is at an ungodly early hour so there's probably no connection from RIC.
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?
-
As of September 7th, Delta will add three roundtrips between Richmond and New York increasing Delta's service between the cities to 7 daily flights.
Two of the new flights will connect RIC and LGA and the third RIC and JFK.
Type of aircraft is not specified in this story from today's RTD:
http://www2.timesdis...-091801/343668/
What will happen to Richmond/Newark service when United and Continental merge?
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.
-
Adam Richman's "Man vs. Food" show on Travel Channel was recently shot in Richmond. The comic's restaurant challenges were CALIENTE in The Museum District, BUZ AND NED's on North Boulevard and BLACK SHEEP in Jackson Ward.
The episode will not air until July 4th. However, there was a preview last night on ABC's Nightline. Richman watched and cheer-led as ABC Nightline host John Berman downed a plateful of CALIENTE's "stupid wings" whilst gasping for breath and relief.
Here's that video provided by Melissa Ruggieri in her Pop Culture column.
From todays RTD:
http://www.mytimesdi....php/popculture
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...
-
Flight adjustments to and from RIC:
American is adding service to O'Hare; Delta is reinstating service to Minneapolis (on a seasonal basis) and switching three flights which currently fly into JFK to LaGuardia.
From this afternoon's RTD:
http://www2.timesdis...-123001/331542/
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.
-
I agree, crash. RIC is lucky to have flack. And I bet his boss, Mathiason, is pretty sharp, too.
Question from a novice? Why couldn't your American flight be moved to a thawed-out jetway? I would think American has more than one in that concourse.
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.
-
I'm not familiar with the sizes of planes, so how big is a super 80? How many passengers can they carry? Also, were they pulled up to jetways or over-nighting on the tarmac?
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.
-
crashvt03, think about the connection between your two concerns. If the "new carrier" scenario developed and a new carrier chose to start service at some point from RIC, traffic increases and the parking expansion becomes critically and immediately important. We saw a passenger volume increase of >45% from 2003 to 2007 with the arrival of AirTran (2005) & JetBlue (2006). This is recent history, and we're glad the 2003 South Garage expansion was in place.
Even with traffic off in recent months, parking can be very tight in the decks. We offer ~4200 spaces right now, and I've seen midweek, mid-day avail counts with less than 50 spaces (or in other words, more than 98% full). Like yesterday and today, not exactly high points in a peak travel season. And garages take time. Design, bond rating, bond sale/lining up financing, competitive bidding process must all take place before the first shovel of dirt is turned. Construction, in this case, is an 18-month process. Once built, the garage will serve travelers for decades. Having some availability is not a bad thing, especially with parking where convenience truly matters.
As far as air service, much attention in this economy is focused on retaining the service we have, so I thank you for every flight you take and hope you spread your business around to carriers new and old. Our next focus is more routes oriented. As a community, I can think of several destinations which have some demand for nonstop service. We still see leakage for long-haul West Coast service. Biz travelers would welcome options such as Nashville, DEN, PHX and other points west. There are some leisure or mixed biz-leisure destinations that would be applauded, like Tampa or Las Vegas. Recent service cessations like Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis and Pittsburgh are sorely missed by many. These destinations can be served by airlines that have already made an investment in the community.
Based on route priorities - generally driven by traffic and yield data, plus input from the community (especially biz travelers and travel program managers) - we talk to many carriers about providing service from RIC.
I appreciate your input, hope I was able to address some of your concerns.
Flack4RIC
"@Flack4RIC" on Twitter
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?
-
Delta's only comments regarding reason for the August cessation with this route was "insufficient local traffic." As far as connecting traffic, I think they would expect to handle via CVG, DTW, ATL, etc. Personally, I loved the MSP nonstop, regret seeing it come off the fall schedule.
Flack4RIC
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.
-
How many passengers does an E-175 hold versus a CRJ-200? Are they both prop planes?
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?
-
That is frustrating. Retail and restaurants will be hit hard by the coming recession/depression. I only hope we have the presence of mind to spend our money in the places that give Richmond its unique identity and help them stay open instead of supporting the further homogenization/commercialization of America. I don't think this one comparison necessarily suggests a trend. Several chains near me have shut down while more established, locally owned businesses remain.
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.
Richmond International Airport
in Richmond
Posted
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.