Richmond International Airport

[georgeglass]

Looks like February numbers are out. Passenger count continues to be higher compared to February 2023, but cargo seems to be leveling off. 

 

RIC-FEB24-Activity-Report (1).pdf

[I miss RVA]

52 minutes ago, georgeglass said:

Looks like February numbers are out. Passenger count continues to be higher compared to February 2023, but cargo seems to be leveling off. 

 

RIC-FEB24-Activity-Report (1).pdf 57.61 kB · 2 downloads

Wow - great!! Thanks, @georgeglass -- great find.

I'll need to dig back through and look at January's year-over-year percentage, but it looks like February's growth rate bounced back a bit from the lower January rate. A quick and dirty calculation shows that we're still very much on pace to crack 5 million passengers in 2025. Just using the current YTD year-over-year incremental increase of 7.06% vs 2023, if we maintain this pace, we'll finish just shy of 5.1 million passengers (5.091 M) for 2024.

As for the cargo - given the news that broke today about both the Amazon fulfillment center and the Coca Cola bottling plant in eastern Henrico both really ramping up, I feel certain we'll see those cargo numbers jump back up in pretty short order.

By chance, does anyone know what ORF did in January and February? I'd like to see how we're stacking up relative to one another.

Edited March 27 by I miss RVA

[eandslee]

Dang!  So sorry guys!  I’ve been in NYC the past few days and had forgotten about the stats that were released today!  Great numbers for a February!  In fact, this looks like a new record for the month of February!!  Yeessss!!

I’m really surprised by the cargo numbers though - negative growth!  What?!  That should change soon once Amazon gets its new warehouse up and running to 100%!!

Edited March 27 by eandslee

[I miss RVA]

11 minutes ago, eandslee said:

Dang!  So sorry guys!  I’ve been in NYC the past few days and had forgotten about the stats that were released today!  Great numbers for a February!  In fact, this looks like a new record for the month of February!!  Yeessss!!

I’m really surprised by the cargo numbers though - negative growth!  What?!  That should change soon once Amazon gets its new warehouse up and running to 100%!!

Freight was still positive, albeit only extremely incremental - but the net negative was driven by mail cargo basically disappearing, which it's been doing over the past year.

I feel certain that the ramp up with Amazon and the Coca Cola plant will restore those cargo increases later on this year.

Enjoy Gotham! 

Edited March 27 by I miss RVA

[eandslee]

6 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

Wow - great!! Thanks, @georgeglass -- great find.

I'll need to dig back through and look at January's year-over-year percentage, but it looks like February's growth rate bounced back a bit from the lower January rate. A quick and dirty calculation shows that we're still very much on pace to crack 5 million passengers in 2025. Just using the current YTD year-over-year incremental increase of 7.06% vs 2023, if we maintain this pace, we'll finish just shy of 5.1 million passengers (5.091 M) for 2024.

As for the cargo - given the news that broke today about both the Amazon fulfillment center and the Coca Cola bottling plant in eastern Henrico both really ramping up, I feel certain we'll see those cargo numbers jump back up in pretty short order.

By chance, does anyone know what ORF did in January and February? I'd like to see how we're stacking up relative to one another.

Norfolk International is growing pretty fast. Just yesterday, Breeze Airways announced their 17th destination from ORF - Phoenix.

Here were ORF’s passenger numbers for February:

 

Edited March 27 by eandslee

[blopp1234]

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.

 

[Urbanlooker]

9 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

By chance, does anyone know what ORF did in January and February? I'd like to see how we're stacking up relative to one another.

As touched on above ORF is currently sitting at ~602k passengers YTD but grew 12% over the same period last year. There has also been, I believe, 8 new routes announced starting this year. 

[eandslee]

1 hour ago, Urbanlooker said:

As touched on above ORF is currently sitting at ~602k passengers YTD but grew 12% over the same period last year. There has also been, I believe, 8 new routes announced starting this year. 

Yeah, ORF is gaining ground on RIC what with all their new routes announced in the past few months. RIC has seen no new routes this calendar year…until today - BWI. This is a route that Southwest already has at ORF.  I really don’t like when the airlines do this - they serve one of the two airports for a while, if successful, they’ll announce the same route for the other airport…which keeps us on even ground. I like the competition - wish the industry would stop equalizing us!

Speaking of the RIC-BWI route on Southwest, I would much more prefer we get RIC-LUV, but we’re desperate, so I’ll take BWI…even if just seasonal. Great find BTW, @blopp1234!  Way to keep a keen eye on the industry!  Let’s see what else we can find!

Edited March 27 by eandslee

[I miss RVA]

3 hours ago, eandslee said:

Yeah, ORF is gaining ground on RIC...

Welp... not exactly. (Yes, I know, it's early, but...)

RIC outpaced ORF by (roughly) 20K passengers in January, and by 29K in February - so in the two slowest months of the year, we're ahead by 49K passengers. Not a huge margin, admittedly, and ORF's new routes starting up later this year will boost their numbers, particularly during the summer travel season, when ORF usually outpaces RIC.

One thing to consider, @eandslee - of the new routes flying out of ORF, I believe at least two of them are re-establishing previously existing route. ORF-SAN and ORF-SJU. Undoubtedly, it will bump up their numbers, but these routes were already established as destinations out of ORF.

Southwest adding BWI will certainly help. I believe while there weren't necessarily any "new" routes added yet this year (prior to this announcement), weren't frequencies being taken UP on a couple of existing routes? Also a couple of existing routes were upgrading to larger aircraft as well - in which case RIC SHOULD see a bump-up in passenger totals from increased flight frequencies and larger liveries.

A QUESTION TO OUR GURUS (and @blopp1234, @eandslee, and @Niccckk, that means you): Could Southwest be a game-changer for RIC in 2024? They've been almost a non-factor here for so many years. IF (and that's the biggest word in the English language) - IF - they somehow start significantly boosting service out of RIC, might that offset the multiple route adds ORF will be enjoying this year?

ALSO - where (and with what carriers) do you see as potentially viable new routes for RIC that could be added on in 2024? (Do I remember correctly that Austin had decent potential passenger load factors?)

Okay -and now for my two tarnished shekels: IMNSHO, we NEED (desperately) to:

1.) Get international flights flying in/out of RIC like YESTERDAY. Get that customs facility/international gate open and get some airlines to start using it. That's a HUGE fear of mine is that this gate might sit essentially dormant while ORF's is being reconstituted - and as soon as ORFs is operational - BOOM - the airlines will be lining up to fly out of there. Right now we have a big time advantage over ORF - but we can't afford to sit and fritter that advantage away. We need to get multiple airlines with multiple international destinations flying here NOW!!! Hit up all the vacation spots in the Caribbean. Get some flights to Mexico. Get Air Canada in here to Toronto. As Tom Brady would say - LET'S GOOOOOOO!!!!

2.) Get Alaska Airlines in here and get the RIC-SEA route established.

3.) Get Frontier in here and get an RIC-SJU route established.

4.) Get our existing carriers to continue bumping up flight frequencies and - as they get larger liveries available - flying them from RIC.

5.) AT SOME POINT - (probably after snagging the RIC-SEA route): get RIC-SAN established. Imagine being able to fly direct from RIC to SEA, SFO, LAX, SAN (maybe at some point we'd get Portland added in as well.) - and inland to LAS and PHX. (Do we have SLC yet?)

Hopefully Breeze will bump up their offerings, both in terms of flight frequencies and a new destination or two out of RIC. Correct me if I'm wrong, but RIC is one of Breeze's top airports - and we have the highest passenger load for any non-focus-city airport in the Breeze network - AND - we even outpace a couple of the focus cities, yes?

BTW - Wikipedia needs to be corrected - they still have RIC as the "fourth busiest" in Virginia and ORF as the "third busiest". They switched places in 2023 by about 203K passengers. How do we get that corrected?

We're already on pace for 5.1 million passengers for 2024 - and if we get any of the stuff mentioned above, I feel confident that will push us well beyond that. Not saying we can match last year's stratospheric growth in which we added 750K passengers above 2022 totals - BUT - I don't think we're all that far away from hitting 5.5 million (probably doable in 2025). We NEED to get these other growth factors to seriously take off.  I seem to recall the interview where the powers-that-be indicated that the airport's current capacity is in the 6 million passenger range - and that as we approach that figure, that would trigger dusting off the airport master plan and work on expanding both concourses and adding gates. I believe the master plan includes a timeline of expansion occurring by 2030. It would be great if we far outperform any/all expectations, force an earlier start to expansion, and ramp up that expansion to get us to what in the master plan would put us at: (And yes, it's time to break out the old mantra...)

44 GATES!!!

Edited March 27 by I miss RVA

[Shakman]

In my opinion, Southwest service to BWI would mean less chance of Southwest adding destination from RIC.   Once RIC passengers arrive at BWI, they will connect to flights to many other destinations.

Edited March 27 by Shakman

[Urbanlooker]

1 hour ago, I miss RVA said:

Welp... not exactly. (Yes, I know, it's early, but...)

RIC outpaced ORF by (roughly) 20K passengers in January, and by 29K in February - so in the two slowest months of the year, we're ahead by 49K passengers. Not a huge margin, admittedly, and ORF's new routes starting up later this year will boost their numbers, particularly during the summer travel season, when ORF usually outpaces RIC.

One thing to consider, @eandslee - of the new routes flying out of ORF, I believe at least two of them are re-establishing previously existing route. ORF-SAN and ORF-SJU. Undoubtedly, it will bump up their numbers, but these routes were already established as destinations out of ORF.

 

ORF has never had a SJU route at least not within the last 20 years. Also yes RIC is up by 49k passengers right now. However, if ORF stays on it's 12% growth rate, they're also looking at 5.1M passengers this year. Given the amount of additional destinations coming, I see no reason why a 12% growth rate can't be sustained and surpassed. 

[I miss RVA]

11 minutes ago, Urbanlooker said:

ORF has never had a SJU route at least not within the last 20 years.

Ahh - good to know.

[Flood Zone]

54 minutes ago, Urbanlooker said:

Also yes RIC is up by 49k passengers right now. However, if ORF stays on it's 12% growth rate, they're also looking at 5.1M passengers this year. Given the amount of additional destinations coming, I see no reason why a 12% growth rate can't be sustained and surpassed. 

Obviously, best-case, they're both up 12% and everyone is ecstatic. But I still maintain that as long as both are on a growth trajectory, it's a "win" all the way around. Roughly, what, half a million more passengers will come through those two airports combined by the end of the year?

[I miss RVA]

1 hour ago, Flood Zone said:

Obviously, best-case, they're both up 12% and everyone is ecstatic. But I still maintain that as long as both are on a growth trajectory, it's a "win" all the way around. Roughly, what, half a million more passengers will come through those two airports combined by the end of the year?

Combined it was more than one million in 2023. It could approach a million - or come up just a bit short -- this year.

I'm not sure we're (RIC) going to get to 12% year-over-year unless we can get additional destinations (as has ORF) - or - carriers beef up frequency and livery size on existing routes - and - we get some airlines in here to start up international service. That new customs facility and international gate is just about ready to go - we need to have airlines lining up at our front door to bring service to the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada to start. Hopefully Europe in the not too distant future (and the airport big-wigs have been talking about Europe, so that's not just my cockeyed pipe-dreaming.

Edited March 27 by I miss RVA

[Niccckk]

4 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

A QUESTION TO OUR GURUS (and @blopp1234, @eandslee, and @Niccckk, that means you): Could Southwest be a game-changer for RIC in 2024? They've been almost a non-factor here for so many years. IF (and that's the biggest word in the English language) - IF - they somehow start significantly boosting service out of RIC, might that offset the multiple route adds ORF will be enjoying this year?

I don't think we'll see much of Southwest this year. They are pissed off w/ Boeing with 737 MAX 7 production which is a HUGE part of their growth plan. Southwest has complained they have had to use bigger aircraft for routes that really need the smaller -700.

We've gotta just wait around w/ Southwest as there is so many route oppurtunities and competition oppurtunities with them (especially "internatonally" to the caribbean and Mexico)

Examples:

- RIC-PHX could compete with Breeze

- RIC-DAL could compete with American

- RIC-MCO could compete with jetBlue & Spirit

- RIC-LGA could compete with American (less likely in my opinion)

I super glad we're getting Nashville though, that is a very big addition.

Also according to the Southwest site, this "RIC-BWI" flight which they said is "limited time" is definitely that. I only see it operating on Thanksgiving day in November, and that's it. Honestly I feel like this route serves only for connecting to the Northeast with Southwest as we have better ways to get to Baltimore (Amtrak). This route, like someone said earlier, would absolutely hurt our chances for more "point to point nonstop" routes as BWI is a huge hub for Southwest, and they'd just be funneling people from RIC there. I genuinely hope that route doesn't stick, because it would do more harm than good. I feel similarly with RIC-ATL with Delta. It is amazing that we've seen 6-8 nonstops a day to Atlanta with the 757, but I'm pretty sure a majority of the flyers going to Atlanta are there to connect, and I think 6-8 nonstops shows there is demand for other nonstop routes with Delta out of here. I believe Delta used to operate RIC-MCO, it would be nice to see them operate that again to give some good competition with jetBlue & Spirit, and maybe fly to some other of their hubs like SLC or even SEA.

4 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

Hopefully Breeze will bump up their offerings, both in terms of flight frequencies and a new destination or two out of RIC. Correct me if I'm wrong, but RIC is one of Breeze's top airports - and we have the highest passenger load for any non-focus-city airport in the Breeze network - AND - we even outpace a couple of the focus cities, yes?

This is correct. We have the highest passenger load for any non Breeze focus city / hub.

4 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

2.) Get Alaska Airlines in here and get the RIC-SEA route established.

 

I've heard this has been a mixed bag, and there is uncertainty on this route become a possiblity now. I read this on Twitter so take that with a grain of salt.

 

4 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

RIC outpaced ORF by (roughly) 20K passengers in January, and by 29K in February - so in the two slowest months of the year, we're ahead by 49K passengers. Not a huge margin, admittedly, and ORF's new routes starting up later this year will boost their numbers, particularly during the summer travel season, when ORF usually outpaces RIC.

One thing we have to remember with Norfolk is they have a bigger tourist & military market than we do. They have direct access to VA Beach & Military bases which is a huge benefit for them, so during the Summer it would make sense for them to outpace us a bit because of their larger tourist market with the beach nearby. It's actually really impressive that we keep up with them during the summer, likely because we are the go to airport because we are more "central" to everything, which is a huge benfit for us (1hr-2hr drive from beach, mountains, busch gardens, kings dominion, colonial williamsburg, etc. etc.)

Edited March 27 by Niccckk

[Niccckk]

4 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

BTW - Wikipedia needs to be corrected - they still have RIC as the "fourth busiest" in Virginia and ORF as the "third busiest". They switched places in 2023 by about 203K passengers. How do we get that corrected?

 

I contribute a bit to the wiki page, just fixed that and fixed the sourcing for it as well, good catch!

[I miss RVA]

24 minutes ago, Niccckk said:

I don't think we'll see much of Southwest this year. They are pissed off w/ Boeing with 737 MAX 7 production which is a HUGE part of their growth plan. Southwest has complained they have had to use bigger aircraft for routes that really need the smaller -700.

We've gotta just wait around w/ Southwest as there is so many route oppurtunities and competition oppurtunities with them (especially "internatonally" to the caribbean and Mexico)

Examples:

- RIC-PHX could compete with Breeze

- RIC-DAL could compete with American

- RIC-MCO could compete with jetBlue & Spirit

- RIC-LGA could compete with American (less likely in my opinion)

I super glad we're getting Nashville though, that is a very big addition.

Also according to the Southwest site, this "RIC-BWI" flight which they said is "limited time" is definitely that. I only see it operating the Friday after Thanksgiving in November, and that's it. Honestly I feel like this route serves only for connecting to the Northeast with Southwest as we have better ways to get to Baltimore (Amtrak). This route, like someone said earlier, would absolutely hurt our chances for more "point to point nonstop" routes as BWI is a huge hub for Southwest, and they'd just be funneling people from RIC there. I genuinely hope that route doesn't stick, because it would do more harm than good. I feel similarly with RIC-ATL with Delta. It is amazing that we've seen 6-8 nonstops a day to Atlanta with the 757, but I'm pretty sure a majority of the flyers going to Atlanta are there to connect, and I think 6-8 nonstops shows there is demand for other nonstop routes with Delta out of here. I believe Delta used to operate RIC-MCO, it would be nice to see them operate that again to give some good competition with jetBlue & Spirit.

This is correct. We have the highest passenger load for any non Breeze focus city / hub.

I've heard this has been a mixed bag, and there is uncertainty on this route become a possiblity now. I read this on Twitter so take that with a grain of salt.

 

One thing we have to remember with Norfolk is they have a bigger tourist & military market than we do. They have direct access to VA Beach & Military bases which is a huge benefit for them, so during the Summer it would make sense for them to outpace us a bit because of their larger tourist market with the beach nearby. It's actually really impressive that we keep up with them during the summer, likely because we are the go to airport because we are more "central" to everything, which is a huge benfit for us (1hr-2hr drive from beach, mountains, busch gardens, kings dominion, colonial williamsburg, etc. etc.)

Thanks, @Niccckk. Some follow-ups & responses in order:

1.) I totally forgot Southwest added the RIC-BNA route. That IS big. 

2.) Yeah - this whole 737 thing really throwing a monkey wrench into things, especially for Southwest. It sucks - and it makes me wonder if/when this gets solved and they can fly the 737's instead of larger birds if we'll see them pump up service here. As you said - tons of really good opportunities if they'll play ball.

3.) BWI - yeah - hadn't thought of that. Agreed - hopefully this is a one-off and goes nowhere. I'd rather have the point-to-point direct destination service out of RIC than get funneled to a super hub. We have enough of that already.

4.) Alaska Air - what??? How's this possible? The airline was (apparently) in favor of it - and we snagged federal funds for seed money to secure the route, and the airport has been super gung-ho about getting this route established. RIC has been way overperforming the last couple of years. We don't need folks changing their minds on this potential route. We definitely need a Seattle route.

5.) Norfolk/summer: 100% understood. ORF outpacing RIC in the peak summer travel/tourist season is to be expected. But that's a relatively short season - four months give or take. Unless they just totally blow us out of the water during the tourist season (which they did NOT do last year) - I'm more concerned with the other eight months that are more favorable for RIC to outpace them. That's where their having picked up so many extra destinations this year worries me, because unless I'm misreading the tea leaves, it will impact not just the summer tourist season. What helped RIC in 2023 is that we built a fairly sizeable advantage heading into the summer season, withstood ORF's expected seasonal uber-performance, and then come fall, RIC put the hammer down and pulled away. We lost VERY little ground over the summer last year - I don't recall the numbers, but I think it was less than 50K total for the season - and we ended up ahead by year's end by 203K.

What's your read on international service? Do you have any insight on why there's been nothing announced yet? "Ongoing talks with carriers" is great - but time is ticking. We still have a sizeable amount of lead time before both airports will be open for international business - and unless we get flights started ASAP, we're just frittering away that time advantage. I keep saying this (and maybe you have insight that might settle my mind a bit on this) - that we get our international gate open say 9 months or a year or more before ORF's opens, but it sits basically unused while airlines faff around hemming and hawing and being slow to the switch to start up international service. Meanwhile, the day comes that ORF's opens - and the minute it does, those same airlines that were dragging their feet to set up shop at RIC are lined up like planes at stacking hour at ATL to fly out of ORF's new international gate -- in which case, we're screwed.

What's going on with all of this? I'm not going to feel better until we have a good, solid cadre of flights to the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada underway and some really promising prospects for Europe and elsewhere on the radar. If ORF gets this before we do, then it's game over. They'll dominate the international travel between the two airports. Mind you - they might do so anyway (once both airports' gates are open for business) - but I'd like our chances to at least fight them off if we prove ourselves as we've been doing with the point-to-point service that's been taking us into record territory over this past year or so.

Edited March 27 by I miss RVA

[I miss RVA]

23 minutes ago, Niccckk said:

I contribute a bit to the wiki page, just fixed that and fixed the sourcing for it as well, good catch!

Awesome!! Thanks for doing that. I think that for going the extra mile and going above and beyond, some official RVA/UP Silver Hardware is in order. Requisition has been sent to the warehouse and polishing center. Expect the delivery truck to be arriving shortly. Mazal Tov!! Well done!

Edited March 27 by I miss RVA

[eandslee]

Sorry - I did forget that we got Nashville as a new destination on Southwest. I was thinking that was the case but I couldn’t determine in my mind if I just dreamed it!  Ha!  I’m getting old and losing my marbles, I guess. 

Norfolk may get more tourist and military travelers than RIC, but we get a good amount too (and getting even more as of late…also, we have Fort Lee/Gregg-Adams). Additionally, Richmond has a lot of business travelers (our “bread and butter”) due to all of our Fortune 1000 companies (and a growing list at that!).  

As for International routes…I’m just hoping that when the FIS completion is announced in a few weeks (or less), RIC will also announce new international destinations.  So, maybe they’re just building up to this crescendo where the airport announces the official opening of the FIS and new international routes!  According to the airport, they’ve been in talks with certain airlines for a while now.  Surely, something has come from said talks…right?

I haven’t heard anything new about the RIC-SEA route.  I would assume that this will take a while to solidify…if it happens at all. Maybe the grant can be used to lure other airlines/destinations, such as airlines willing to fly internationally, if SEA falls through. IDK….

For any other possible nonstop destinations from RIC I’d like to see…I would like to see the following added to RIC’s list of nonstop destinations:

- SEA

- AUS

- Would love to see SLC

- STL

- SAN would be nice, but I don’t know if possible

- MCI would be nice too

- Would be a dream to land an airline that just shuttles people from small markets to RIC…kind of like what Silver Airways does, but just brings people to Richmond from a bunch of small regional airport markets. I just think that would be cool.  I would suppose that someone in Richmond would have to start such an airline though (probably not likely to happen), that is, if Silver doesn’t do it (however, they usually do a lot of exotic/tropical destinations…and that isn’t Richmond). 
 

[I miss RVA]

3 hours ago, eandslee said:

Sorry - I did forget that we got Nashville as a new destination on Southwest. I was thinking that was the case but I couldn’t determine in my mind if I just dreamed it!  Ha!  I’m getting old and losing my marbles, I guess. 

Norfolk may get more tourist and military travelers than RIC, but we get a good amount too (and getting even more as of late…also, we have Fort Lee/Gregg-Adams). Additionally, Richmond has a lot of business travelers (our “bread and butter”) due to all of our Fortune 1000 companies (and a growing list at that!).  

As for International routes…I’m just hoping that when the FIS completion is announced in a few weeks (or less), RIC will also announce new international destinations.  So, maybe they’re just building up to this crescendo where the airport announces the official opening of the FIS and new international routes!  According to the airport, they’ve been in talks with certain airlines for a while now.  Surely, something has come from said talks…right?

I haven’t heard anything new about the RIC-SEA route.  I would assume that this will take a while to solidify…if it happens at all. Maybe the grant can be used to lure other airlines/destinations, such as airlines willing to fly internationally, if SEA falls through. IDK….

For any other possible nonstop destinations from RIC I’d like to see…I would like to see the following added to RIC’s list of nonstop destinations:

- SEA

- AUS

- Would love to see SLC

- STL

- SAN would be nice, but I don’t know if possible

- MCI would be nice too

- Would be a dream to land an airline that just shuttles people from small markets to RIC…kind of like what Silver Airways does, but just brings people to Richmond from a bunch of small regional airport markets. I just think that would be cool.  I would suppose that someone in Richmond would have to start such an airline though (probably not likely to happen), that is, if Silver doesn’t do it (however, they usually do a lot of exotic/tropical destinations…and that isn’t Richmond). 
 

Good list of destinations and I second your motion on all of them. MCI, SLC, STL - I'd think they're must-haves that could really benefit RIC. I'd LOVE to have AUS in the mix as well. (Weren't we showing decent PDEW numbers for AUS travelers?) I had been wondering if there was any thought of getting SLC into the mix. Who flies there who theoretically could connect up direct with RIC? Is that a Breeze route?

SEA: Now I'm going to be PRAYYYYYYYYYYING that the SEA route comes through. And ditto the international routes.

What about SJR? Not sure how much demand there'd be for SJR out of Richmond - but something tells me it would be a worthwhile to have a domestic route to the Caribbean to go along with international (vacation) routes going to that part of the world.

Edited March 28 by I miss RVA

[eandslee]

1 hour ago, I miss RVA said:

Good list of destinations and I second your motion on all of them. MCI, SLC, STL - I'd think they're must-haves that could really benefit RIC. I'd LOVE to have AUS in the mix as well. (Weren't we showing decent DPEW numbers for AUS travelers?) I had been wondering if there was any thought of getting SLC into the mix. Who flies there who theoretically could connect up direct with RIC? Is that a Breeze route?

SEA: Now I'm going to be PRAYYYYYYYYYYING that the SEA route comes through. And ditto the international routes.

What about SJR? Not sure how much demand there'd be for SJR out of Richmond - but something tells me it would be a worthwhile to have a domestic route to the Caribbean to go along with international (vacation) routes going to that part of the world.

SJR would be a nice addition too…if we can get an airline willing to take up the route from RIC. The best candidate would be JetBlue at this point, who currently serves the airport. We shall see if we actually get it. 

AUS did indeed have decent PDEW stats from Richmond, but I can’t remember the exact number…I just remember that they were pretty good!

Just for fun:  Here’s a video of planes taking off and landing at RIC recorded a couple days ago by a friend of mine who puts them on YouTube (like and subscribe!).  You’ll notice our downtown in the background to the left of the water tower!!…and dang, that sunset!  Beautiful!  Also, quite a few cargo aircraft that day!  Enjoy!

 

[I miss RVA]

54 minutes ago, eandslee said:

SJR would be a nice addition too…if we can get an airline willing to take up the route from RIC. The best candidate would be JetBlue at this point, who currently serves the airport. We shall see if we actually get it. 

AUS did indeed have decent PDEW stats from Richmond, but I can’t remember the exact number…I just remember that they were pretty good!

Just for fun:  Here’s a video of planes taking off and landing at RIC recorded a couple days ago by a friend of mine who puts them on YouTube (like and subscribe!).  You’ll notice our downtown in the background to the left of the water tower!!…and dang, that sunset!  Beautiful!  Also, quite a few cargo aircraft that day!  Enjoy!

 

Great video! Hmmm... notoriously missing, however, were our good friends as Breeze... were they not flying that day?  

[eandslee]

45 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

Great video! Hmmm... notoriously missing, however, were our good friends as Breeze... were they not flying that day?  

Well, they probably were - this video was just a portion of the day (maybe a couple hours or so).  It just so happened that Breeze was not taking off or landing during the recorded times. 

[ancientcarpenter]

Speaking of seeing the planes, anyone know a good spot I can take my toddler to watch the planes take off and/or land? And a good time of day for it? Would love for him to see it up close and personal - make his little day!

[I miss RVA]

53 minutes ago, ancientcarpenter said:

Speaking of seeing the planes, anyone know a good spot I can take my toddler to watch the planes take off and/or land? And a good time of day for it? Would love for him to see it up close and personal - make his little day!

Awww -  Hey, that's such a cool idea. PLEASE if you do take him, tell us how he liked it and how he reacted. I remember the first time I saw planes taking off/landing at RIC - well, it was called "Byrd Field" back then - and OMG - I was HOOKED! My folks had to get me one of those little airport playsets for my birthday after that because all I wanted to do was to "play airport".  Nowadays, I have "Airport CEO" on my PC. It's actually a LOT of fun to play. ✈

Have a blast with your son and let us know how he enjoys the day! 

Edited March 28 by I miss RVA