blopp1234

Saw that to, which is great news. It does appear this flight is no longer seasonal and will operate 1x per day year round as a substitute to one of the Atlanta flights.

The transforming rail in Va plan will be fully implemented by 2030, as construction of the second span of the long bridge between Alexandria and DC will need to be completed. In regard to if this has happened before where Amtrak partners with an airline, it’s not a very unrealistic concept at all. United used to partner with Amtrak for flights between Philadelphia and Newark, however I believe this stopped during covid. It is also happens all the time in Europe where airlines codeshare with state railways to eliminate short hop flights. The Southwest flights to BWI are scheduled to take around 30 minutes, which from a quick glance is quicker than the 3ish hours it takes on Amtrak. However, the flight costs over 2x what a ticket on Amtrak costs and you also have to factor in atleast 45 minutes to board, 30 minutes to get to the airport, park and walk to the terminal, then atleast 30 minutes to get bags from the baggage claim. After all factors are taken into effect, there is less than a 30 minute difference to go from downtown to downtown with the train being significantly cheaper. While I agree it would likely never happen, I personally would prefer more rail service to Baltimore than having Southwest operate 4-5 flights per day. However, they serve different markets. There may be 1-2 passengers per day that only fly from Richmond to Baltimore and don’t connect onwards so while 2-3 flights per day is good, I’d rather Southwest only fly this route for connections to the northeast and Ohio/Michigan/Indiana as all other connections could be better served through other Southwest focus cities that have far more demand.

Agreed, in a perfect world Southwest would partner with Amtrak to have passengers go from Richmond to BWI via Amtrak, but there are definitely logistical challenges that come from that.

Now if the metro area can keep building fast enough, maybe RVA can slow the drastic increase in housing costs that have been occurring in the past few years.

Not necessarily. Southwest uses BWI as a connecting point for places in the northeast, such as Buffalo, Syracuse, Portland, etc.). This change will make it easier for RIC passengers to access the northeast without having to fly all the way out to Midway and fly back, saving RIC passengers money and time. Southwest could still very easily beef up service to the west or South as BWI isn’t a great connecting point for RIC passengers trying to get to Florida, Texas or the Caribbean. It seems like Southwest is downsizing Atlanta because Greenville/Spartanburg is also going to 1x per day from Atlanta. This is likely due to an over saturated market in the Atlanta area as Delta has their largest hub and Spirit and Frontier have focus cities in addition to Southwest. My guess is Southwest is gonna look to keep moving away from Atlanta and my guess is that Nashville, Orlando and Tampa will pick up the slack.

Well it’s official. Southwest is launching RIC-BWI with 2x daily flights. I think this is primarily to connect RIC flyers to the northeast as it isn’t an advantageous location for flights to the west coast or south as opposed to Southwest’s more central focus cities of Chicago Midway, Atlanta, Nashville, St Louis or Denver. Speaking of Nashville, RIC-BNA on Southwest is bookable in June as well with daily flights which is big because it shows Southwest taking a stab at daily service for a few weeks to get a feel for the market. My guess is next summer, Southwest will expand to daily service year round to BNA. The only downside is that Southwest is reducing RIC-ATL to 1x per day. Below is a breakdown of Southwests schedule from RIC: RIC-BWI: 2x per day RIC-BNA: 1x per week seasonal (7x per week in June 2024) RIC-MDW: 2x per day RIC-DEN: 1x per day RIC-ATL: 1x per day

Delta has been flying 3x daily flights to Detroit out of RIC for years I believe, since they merged with Northwest airlines back in 2008. My hope is that as Delta’s hubs at ATL, LGA, JFK and BOS become more and more crowded and adding flights becomes harder and harder into those airports, Delta will upguage aircraft into those cities and add more flights to places like Detroit or Minneapolis for connections. As far as the total upguages for this summer out of RIC, it’s tough to say without going and looking at every airlines scheduled. I’ve listed the summer schedules for the major airlines (American, Delta, JetBlue, Spirit, United, Southwest) out of RIC for their flights that operate atleast daily. The ones I remember are below: American (21 daily flights): RIC-CLT (7x A321) RIC-DFW (3x 737) RIC- LGA (3x E175) RIC- ORD (3x E145) RIC- PHL (4x E145) RIC-MIA (1x 737) Delta (25 daily flights): RIC-DTW (1x A319, 2x CRJ900) RIC-ATL (9x 757) RIC- MSP (2x CRJ900) RIC-BOS (3x E175) RIC-JFK (3x CRJ900) RIC- LGA (5x CRJ900) United (15 daily flights): RIC-IAH (1x 737) RIC-DEN (2x 737) RIC- ORD (1x 737, 3x CRJ550) RIC-IAD (4x CRJ550) RIC-EWR (1x E175, 3x CRJ550) JetBlue (6 daily flights): RIC-BOS (3x E190) RIC-FLL (1x A320) RIC-MCO (2x A320) Spirit (4x daily flights): RIC-LAS (1x A320) RIC-FLL (2x A320) RIC-MCO (1x A320) Southwest (6x daily flights): RIC-ATL (3x 737) RIC-MDW (2x 737) RIC-DEN (1x 737)

Delta has been flying their 717s into RIC for quite some time, usually once or twice a day during the winter, along with 1-2 CRJ flights (3 flights per day total). The A319 (130+ seats) shows a shift in capacity away from the 717 (110 seats), atleast at Detroit. Hopefully we see the A319 start replacing the CRJs on this route and others as well as Delta continues restoring capacity out of Detroit post pandemic. I’d also love to see larger aircraft used on Deltas route to Boston, as the current 3x daily E175 (76 seats) are averaging over 90% full. The A220-100 or 717 come to mind as possible larger aircraft to use.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/southwest-airlines-cuts-lax-maui/ Some interesting new Southwest news. If you look at the bottom of the article, there is a very important RIC detail. Elsewhere, the airline will add limited-time service from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) to Richmond International Airport (RIC) and from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) to Des Moines International Airport (DSM). Looks like RIC-BWI , which will primarily serve as a feeder route to Southwests BWI network, will be coming online seasonally. No details provided as to what days this route will fly and when it will begin, but it’s is shown on Southwests route map as a direct route from Richmond. I’ll keep my eye out to see if I can find more information out.

The entire section of I-64 between Richmond and Hampton Roads is exploding with New Warehouses. With this, the Autozone warehouse coming online and the massive Lovett Commerce Center that will have over 2 million square feet in James City County, there will be lots of increased truck traffic on I-64.

You are correct about this trend. Almost every minor league baseball stadium built in the last 20 years is pretty much single tiered, with a layer of suites above the single level. Ballparks now attempt to wrap around the field with the intention that fans can view the game from any angle. As far as the proposed stadium, I think it looks really good. Lots of things to like, such as the beer garden, behind home plate suites (which is very major league ish), and seating completely around the stadium. I do wish there was some sort of roof that extended over some of the lower deck seats in order to provide more shade, but that should hopefully be an easy add. Overall, it looks a lot more unique than most minor league ballparks and definitely fits the Richmond theme (it doesn’t look like a cut and paste cookie cutter stadium imo).

First look at the new stadium thanks to Richmond BizSense. https://richmondbizsense.com/2024/03/26/city-gets-first-look-at-new-diamond-district-ballpark-design/

Only time will tell. If it is they haven’t updated their schedule as RIC-BOS goes from 3 to 2 daily flights this summer when JetBlue switches out the 100 seat E190 with the almost 150 seat A220-300. Id love to see them add a flight to San Juan but JetBlue doesn’t seem to eager to try new routes at this point in time.

https://richmondbizsense.com/2024/03/19/mixed-use-project-the-lake-to-deliver-first-commercial-buildings-this-fall/ Some more information on the first phase of “The Lake” development near the intersection of 288 and Genito. Glad to see the first phase of the project is filling up as this project hadn’t had an updated on leasing for a while. I’ll see if I can snap some pics next time I pass it.

I wholeheartedly agree that RIC offers a great passenger experience with the exception of having terrible food options. Would it kill them to add some brand name stuff like a Starbucks or Chick-fil-A?

A few updates I’ve heard/ seen at the airport. 1. United has been using the 70+ seat E-175 on the morning flight from Dulles to RIC, which represents additional capacity through Dulles. 2. Can’t remember if this has already been mentioned but JetBlue and Spirit have been adding capacity to Florida for this spring and summer. Some days have 4 daily flights to MCO (2 JetBlue, 2 Spirit) and 3 daily flights to FLL (1 JetBlue, 2 Spirit). Hopefully these become permanent, but it’s nice to see multiple airlines seeing increasing demand to Florida. 3. I saw on airliners.net that Delta’s route from RIC-BOS is averaging 92% full on its three daily E-175 flights. Hopefully we see increased frequencies or upguaging of aircraft (would love to see the A220 or A319 added to the route). This is also in the top 10 for load factors out of all of the routes from Boston. 4. American has placed an order for I believe 90 Embraer E-175 aircraft, in order to phase out their smaller 50 seat jets. This will be helpful in increasing seat capacity out of RIC as currently American flies 50 seat jets to Chicago and Philadelphia, which will be upguaged to larger aircraft once they are delivered.

Not only has Spirit increase MCO to 2x daily, Fort Lauderdale will also start 2x daily flights on Spirit. This will mean Spirit will be operating 5 daily flights out of RIC this summer (2x RIC-MCO, 2x RIC-FLL, 1x RIC-LAS) all on the 182 seat A320. Fort Lauderdale will have 3 total daily flights from RIC (2x on Spirit, 1x on JetBlue) and Orlando will have 4 total daily flights from RIC (2x on Spirit, 2x on JetBlue).

Good news out of Henrico this morning. It appears that Reynolds’s Development is in the early phases of planning to redevelop the existing office park at the corner of West Broad and Forest Ave, right across from the old Genworth site. While no images showing a master plan are linked, the article mentions that buildings could rise as high as 10-12 stories and the redevelopment could add over 1,200 new units. Seems like this development could be a catalyst for Henrico to expand the Pulse Broad Street Line further into the county. https://richmondbizsense.com/2024/02/26/reynolds-crossing-eyed-for-major-mixed-use-reinvention/

Some good news today. Breeze has extended its schedule through January 2025 and it appears that the RIC-PHX route will not be scrapped and will return for winter 2024-2025. Glad to see this route isn’t going away and will be one of three routes Breeze offers out of Phoenix.

Speaking of new routes, Southwest has updated their schedule for Winter 2024, which has revealed a new route (although the city is already served) from RIC. Figured it was only a matter of time for Southwest to add this route and I’m guessing that by next summer (summer 2025), it will be bumped to daily service as RIC is perfectly located to feed into Southwest’s focus city in Nashville.

I think it depends on their design. I think if they did something similar to a taller version of Raleigh’s under construction RUS Bus tower would be a good addition, but I do agree that a surface transfer station with nothing else would be a real disappointment, especially if they chose the empty dominion tower site.

ORF doesn’t need an international gate to serve San Juan. San Juan is domestic and therefore doesn’t require customs facilities. As far as how to attract Frontier, that is solely up to the airport. It could be that the routes Frontier would offer are already saturated by other carriers, but I honestly don’t know. I bet ORF could make the same argument as to why they don’t have JetBlue, it’s just difficult to know while not in that airlines network planning division. There are are a few things RIC can do to try and attract new carriers. Having lots of passengers using the airport never hurts in luring an airline. Another more important factor is an airlines network strategy. Frontier, for example is heavily focused on the Southwest (Dallas, Las Vegas, Phoenix) Midwest (Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati) and Florida (Miami, Orlando, Tampa), so many of their new routes will be focused around those areas of the country. Third, the airlines available fleet is a huge factor. This is why Southwest hasn’t been able to grow as fast recently, as they don’t physically have the planes to fly due to airplane delivery delays from Boeing. As far as I’d Breeze expand their existing route or another carrier will pick up Tampa, I still think Southwest would be a good option since they have a focus city in Tampa, but with two low cost carriers already flying from Richmond to the Tampa area, there is already a lot of capacity.

The Raleigh Durham catchment area is over twice the size of the RIC area since they pull a lot of passengers from Greensboro/Winston Salem and all of eastern NC. The RDU catchment area most likely has a population of close to 3-3.5 million to be honest, not to mention the Raleigh and Durham metro areas are two of the fastest growing in the country. RIC, while growing significantly faster than the vast majority of metro areas in the country, just won’t get the same level of service. I figured it was a matter of time till either Spirit or Breeze dropped this route. As mentioned by @Niccckk, with neither of these airlines offering connections out of TPA, one was going to end service most likely due to competition. If any airline reads Tampa to compete with Breeze, I would think it would be Southwest, since they have a focus city at Tampa and offer numerous connections out of TPA, allowing them to fill flights not just with passengers going between Richmond and Tampa. I hate to be a downer, but Frontier announced some 40 new routes today and RIC didn’t make the cut. Amongst the routes, ORF scored San Juan, which is great for them, just wish that Frontier would enter the Richmond market, which I do think will happen eventually, just wish it was happening right now).

Thrilled about this development. It’s taking a small, kind of awkward parcel and making something of it that will help the area feel more active and vibrant.

The USDOT stats for Q3 2023 are out and below is a list of the top destinations out of RIC with no service or less than daily service and over 50 passengers traveling each way each day. RIC-LAX: 187 (3x per week on Breeze) RIC-SFO: 132 (2x per week on Breeze) RIC-BNA: 94 (2x per week on Allegiant) RIC- MSY: 92 (2x per week on Breeze) RIC-PHX: 87 (2x per week on Breeze) RIC- SEA: 77 RIC-SAN: 66 RIC-AUS: 61 RIC-JAX: 57 (2x per week on Breeze) RIC-SLC: 55 RIC-MCI: 51 A few things that jump out about these numbers. 1.) Southwest not adding Nashville is wild to me. RIC is one of the top 3 domestic destinations not served by Southwest at Nashville, so my guess is that route gets added within the next year by Southwest. 2.) While it’s great that Breeze has added cities like LAX and SFO, I don’t see them sticking around on those routes in the longs term as they offer no connections at either of those airports. I think the airport should be looking to attract American, Delta or United to fly these routes as the ability to connect can really make a flight more useful for someone trying to get from RIC to Asia. I don’t want to be pessimistic but I wouldn’t be shocked if Spirit goes under or goes bankrupt in the next few months after their failed merger with JetBlue. This will make it interesting to see what happens with their routes out of RIC.