Richmond International Airport

[Niccckk]

8 hours ago, blopp1234 said:

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. 

Yeah, same with IAD. It would be amazing to have Amtrak bookable via the United or Southwest website for those super short connections

[I miss RVA]

11 hours ago, Niccckk said:

Yeah, same with IAD. It would be amazing to have Amtrak bookable via the United or Southwest website for those super short connections

Even putting aside a LOT of politicking that would no doubt come into play, even if any of the airlines DID want to partner with Amtrak, given the latter's plans to expand service between Richmond and DC, I'd say the best chance of something like this coming to pass would be once Amtrak establishes hourly service between Main Street Station and Union Station (and vice versa). I don't have the Virginia Rail plan handy at the moment, but aren't we looking at the timeframe for that to be somewhere in the latter half of the decade? Maybe as early as 2026? Maybe later? 2027? I don't remember.  Unless and until, it would be a tough nut to crack.

What's more - there's the time factor. How long would a flight on Southwest (or any carrier) between RIC and BWI take - about 45 minutes, give or take? Particularly with no true "high speed" rail setup here yet, you'd still looking at a two-plus hour train ride to D.C, depending on time of day (let's say, at worst, 2h:25m). And if the drop-off point in D.C. is at Union Station, that's not factoring in the time (or expense) of schlepping to/from the airport (likely on the Metro, yes?) from/to downtown Washington, regardless of whether the end point was IAD, DCA or BWI. 

Not sure how well it would book - plus how would the price points (rail vs air) stack up against each other? Would there be enough volume to make it worth whatever the airlines would have to pony up to partner with Amtrak (or vice versa)?

PLUS (and this is a BIGGIE for me): do we reallllllllllllllly want to take potential passenger volume AWAY from RIC? Given how much we're kvetching about, praying, hoping and pushing for increasing volume through RIC in order to bring more direct service to more destinations and more frequent flights on established routes, expand the airport, etc., wouldn't it be better if Southwest had four or five flights per day out of RIC to BWI and possibly IAD? Or even just two or three? IF, because of the connections available at BWI, it's an untapped gold mine for potential passenger volume, wouldn't that be the better way to go?

Part of me loves concept - but there are a lot of hurdles and a ton of questions. 

[blopp1234]

9 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

Even putting aside a LOT of politicking that would no doubt come into play, even if any of the airlines DID want to partner with Amtrak, given the latter's plans to expand service between Richmond and DC, I'd say the best chance of something like this coming to pass would be once Amtrak establishes hourly service between Main Street Station and Union Station (and vice versa). I don't have the Virginia Rail plan handy at the moment, but aren't we looking at the timeframe for that to be somewhere in the latter half of the decade? Maybe as early as 2026? Maybe later? 2027? I don't remember.  Unless and until, it would be a tough nut to crack.

What's more - there's the time factor. How long would a flight on Southwest (or any carrier) between RIC and BWI take - about 45 minutes, give or take? Particularly with no true "high speed" rail setup here yet, you'd still looking at a two-plus hour train ride to D.C, depending on time of day (let's say, at worst, 2h:25m). And if the drop-off point in D.C. is at Union Station, that's not factoring in the time (or expense) of schlepping to/from the airport (likely on the Metro, yes?) from/to downtown Washington, regardless of whether the end point was IAD, DCA or BWI. 

Not sure how well it would book - plus how would the price points (rail vs air) stack up against each other? Would there be enough volume to make it worth whatever the airlines would have to pony up to partner with Amtrak (or vice versa)?

PLUS (and this is a BIGGIE for me): do we reallllllllllllllly want to take potential passenger volume AWAY from RIC? Given how much we're kvetching about, praying, hoping and pushing for increasing volume through RIC in order to bring more direct service to more destinations and more frequent flights on established routes, expand the airport, etc., wouldn't it be better if Southwest had four or five flights per day out of RIC to BWI and possibly IAD? Or even just two or three? IF, because of the connections available at BWI, it's an untapped gold mine for potential passenger volume, wouldn't that be the better way to go?

Part of me loves concept - but there are a lot of hurdles and a ton of questions. 

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.

[Niccckk]

Update with the Richmond - Nashville route with Southwest:
It will now start June 4th, alongside BWI starting, and it appears the BNA flight will be a seasonal daily flight for now, a change from it being a Sunday only flight. This is pretty big and great news! Hopefully it can turn into a year-round flight if demand is maintained for the route. 

[blopp1234]

9 minutes ago, Niccckk said:

Update with the Richmond - Nashville route with Southwest:
It will now start June 4th, alongside BWI starting, and it appears the BNA flight will be a seasonal daily flight for now, a change from it being a Sunday only flight. This is pretty big and great news! Hopefully it can turn into a year-round flight if demand is maintained for the route. 

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. 

[I miss RVA]

Wow - this is definitely encouraging news. Glad to see it.

I'm I having memory issues or weren't we also getting something new from Spirit this year?

 

Edited April 14 by I miss RVA

[Niccckk]

Was doing some looking on the new RIC-BWI flight, and it appears it is pretty much replacing RIC-ATL, as RIC-ATL is going down to 1x daily after June. RIC-BWI will now be the 6:00am morning flight instead of ATL, which kind of sucks for people traveling south who wanted a quick connection in the morning, and now have to reduntantly go north to go south. The reduction at ATL isn't a Richmond thing, it's happening at a lot of Southwest airports.

Edited April 21 by Niccckk

[Richmonopoly]

Great news indeed.  I just told a friend that my next destination is Nashville, TN.  I flew United to Charlotte (destined for Key West) to a full flight a few weeks ago.  Though, not very busy, the RIC experience was a pleasure compared to the others.  It is very clean and easy to move around.