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Richmond International Airport


eandslee

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9 hours ago, Downtowner said:

Yes I read the article multiple times before they took it down. I’m really wondering why they took it down. Kinda baffles me.


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The article is back up on the RTD website again!  Not sure why they took it away at all.  

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On 6/15/2018 at 6:27 PM, eandslee said:

The latest news in the airport’s expansion of the A Concourse (see link below).  Construction should start late summer/early fall and last for 15 months. They say it is to “stay ahead of the curve,” but there are rumors of more than just “staying ahead of the curve” - that it is possible that an airline or airlines are looking to expand...somewhat significantly.

Rumors are rumors until someone with credibility makes a public statement. If every rumor about RIC came true, we'd have nonstop service to seven continents and a docking/MRO station for alien aircraft.

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39 minutes ago, flack4ric said:

Rumors are rumors until someone with credibility makes a public statement. If every rumor about RIC came true, we'd have nonstop service to seven continents and a docking/MRO station for alien aircraft.

I agree.  Rumors ARE just rumors.  I've claimed no official announcement nor confirmed any impending move on anyone's part...all just speculation.  We'll just sit back, wait, and see what happens.

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If one were to try to connect dots about rumors, here’s an interesting article about a  Moxy, a new airline launching in 2020 that will focus on point to point flights between secondary cities...

http://www.richmond.com/washingtonpost/business/jetblue-founder-raising-money-for-new-u-s-airline-report/article_4d161fcc-f930-58ff-98ed-fdde66b62b3a.html

 

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9 hours ago, wrldcoupe4 said:

If one were to try to connect dots about rumors, here’s an interesting article about a  Moxy, a new airline launching in 2020 that will focus on point to point flights between secondary cities...

http://www.richmond.com/washingtonpost/business/jetblue-founder-raising-money-for-new-u-s-airline-report/article_4d161fcc-f930-58ff-98ed-fdde66b62b3a.html

 

The name of this new airline might get confused with the hotel brand, Moxy - strange that this is the name.  That was just my initial thought.

I like the aircraft they are going to use - nice, new aircraft (Bombardier C Series) - they just ordered 60 of them!

800px-Bombardier,_BD-500_CSeries_CS300,_

My next thought was where will the new airline be HQ'd or what city will it operate out of?  Sounds like it might be based out of Connecticut and there will be no "hub and spoke" model (like most airlines today), but will focus on serving smaller markets doing point-to-point routes (I think Richmond probably fits into the smaller market category)...but is that model sustainable?  Not sure it is considering most all airlines have a "hub and spoke" model to save money and offer more flights.  Who knows, RIC could be seeing Moxy Airlines land here in the next couple years!  If they eventually go to a "hub and spoke" model, it would be nice to see RIC become a hub...or at least a focus city!  Love to see new opportunities!

Edited by eandslee
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RIC has its busiest month ever in May!

http://www.richmond.com/business/local/richmond-airport-traffic-sets-record-for-any-month/article_812f76a1-d469-587e-9002-c36293a4ab29.html

“The airport handled 357,435 passengers last month, the Capital Region Airport Commission reported. The previous record was 342,055 in October 2017.

May's traffic marked a 13 percent increase compared with the same month in 2017.”

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I fell asleep VERY early last night and missed the article. Thanks for posting and for making up where I slacked off.  This is just awesome news.  The airport continues to grow and as long as more offerings are made (new destinations, more seats, more flights), the growth should continue!  I’m super ecstatic!!  Fly RIC!

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  • 1 month later...

Discovered this article from the Henrico Citizen about the airport’s impending expansion.  Some interesting tidbits are revealed here that they anticipate that there will be more flights coming in the evening as well as more flights leaving in the morning (pretty vague, but to me, that means expanded air service, the details of which I don’t have, nor is it revealed in this article).  The airport is needing more parking overnight to accommodate for the additional flights, therefore, more gates are needed.  They never want to say no to an airline wanting to enter or expand at RIC, so they are setting up facilities to stay slightly ahead of the anticipated demand.  Construction will hopefully start in September. 

https://www.henricocitizen.com/articles/two-airport-expansion-projects-nearing/

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Richmond International Airport just released their statistics for June 2018.  Looks like the airport had another all-time record month!  373,379 passengers were served in June 2018 compared to 333,086 in June 2017.  That is a 12.10% increase and may be an all-time record month!!  Not only that, RIC served 3,827,710 passengers this past year (the end of June marks the end of their fiscal year)!  That is an all-time record my friends!!!  I can see the airport breaking the 4 million passenger mark by next year easily if this growth keeps up!  Great news for the airport!

http://www.flyrichmond.com/files/stats/RIC_JUN18_Activity_Report.pdf

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36 minutes ago, DowntownCoruscant said:

The airport really seems to be on a growth curve. I wonder, does its rate of increased passenger service outpace the rate for the industry as a whole?

According to this website, the North American passenger growth rate is 3.1%.  If that is really true, RIC is killing it!

https://www.statista.com/statistics/269919/growth-rates-for-passenger-and-cargo-air-traffic/

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The airport president and CEO at RIC is set to retire next year after being here for 18 years!  Wow!  Kudos to him and we wish him all the best.  He really has done a lot for RIC, but now it’s time for another president and CEO to take the airport to the next level and beyond.  I really hope the airport commission selects someone who is ambitious, has a clear vision of growth, and someone who can negotiate and land excellent deals (no pun intended)!  Hear, hear to Mr. Mathiasen and hear, hear to his successor!

https://www.richmond.com/business/local/richmond-international-airport-s-president-and-ceo-plans-to-retire/article_8ea78f4c-2df8-5e9d-a607-6b066bb56fc1.html

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I joined these boards a number of years ago but haven't been around for awhile.  Glad to be back!

I read the article in the RTD about RIC hitting all-time monthly passenger counts (good news!), and all the airlines seem to be sharing in this except Southwest which reported a decrease of 4.11% according to the article.  I know SWA has yet to be a major player in this market, but I feel that they - and AirTran before them - are the primary reason we have had decent airfares here compared to what they were before they came to town.  My fear is that they'll decide they can make better use of their aircraft on other routes and leave town if they can't draw enough passengers.

Maybe this has been a subject already discussed, but can anybody explain why SWA hasn't seemed to have had as much success here as elsewhere?

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1 hour ago, BR510 said:

I joined these boards a number of years ago but haven't been around for awhile.  Glad to be back!

I read the article in the RTD about RIC hitting all-time monthly passenger counts (good news!), and all the airlines seem to be sharing in this except Southwest which reported a decrease of 4.11% according to the article.  I know SWA has yet to be a major player in this market, but I feel that they - and AirTran before them - are the primary reason we have had decent airfares here compared to what they were before they came to town.  My fear is that they'll decide they can make better use of their aircraft on other routes and leave town if they can't draw enough passengers.

Maybe this has been a subject already discussed, but can anybody explain why SWA hasn't seemed to have had as much success here as elsewhere?

Not 100% sure, but I’ve heard rumors. I heard that the SWA marketing manager for RIC just got up and left one day. Not sure why exactly, but I’ve heard that he was pursuing pushing more service at RIC, but was being shutdown for some reason. It is possible that he got frustrated and then left. It almost seemed as if the airport leadership was keeping SWA at bay, but that just doesn’t make sense to me.  I’m just writing what I’ve heard (take it with a huge grain of salt as I’m sure there is so much more to the story that I just don’t know).  The good news is that SWA has a strong directly flight market to ATL.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t grown much more than just that. I’ve also hoped for more, but SWA has just overwhelmingly under-performed at RIC.  I’m sure there is much more at play here than I know (it could be due to Allegiant and Spirit at RIC now too).  Who knows, but I would like to see them expand service for sure.  Just not sure it will happen when you can get anywhere from ATL.  Instead, I’m looking forward to seeing the other airlines at RIC expand service!

Oh, and welcome to the forum!  Come often and post often! 

Edited by eandslee
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Southwest is my favorite airline to fly, so I have a strong opinion about them not offering more routes out of Richmond. Unfortunately, one of their biggest hubs is Baltimore and I am not sure if it is worth the fuel to fly such a short route.  I have recently moved to Chicago and there is an entire airport pretty much dedicated to Southwest,. I would think this would be a logical next step for Southwest to fly to and from Richmond. This would give them more out west flights than what the Atlanta hub can provide. I of course want a direct flight back home that is not United or American airlines.

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I’ve seen this mentioned a few times on this forum, but I never knew that RIC was a contender for the Piedmont Airlines hub, but was beat out by Charlotte.  I’ve been searching on the Internet so that I can read up on it some more, but I can’t find anything.  Can someone point me in the right direction?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Have a friend of mine right now as we speak on a direct flight from nashville to RVA on a  Boeing MD-80 Plane.  He was supposed to leave nashville at 2:23 this afternoon but didnt take off till 9:46 tonight he wasn't too happy having to wait that long to get back home. 7 hour delay in nashville. He should be back here around 11:54 tonight it says at the moment. I will ask him how crowded the plane was when he gets back here. He was just so ready to get back here earlier today and wasn't able to. Has anyone else flown the direct flight to nashville from Richmond  or Nashville to Richmond?

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6 hours ago, Downtowner said:

Have a friend of mine right now as we speak on a direct flight from nashville to RVA on a  Boeing MD-80 Plane.  He was supposed to leave nashville at 2:23 this afternoon but didnt take off till 9:46 tonight he wasn't too happy having to wait that long to get back home. 7 hour delay in nashville. He should be back here around 11:54 tonight it says at the moment. I will ask him how crowded the plane was when he gets back here. He was just so ready to get back here earlier today and wasn't able to. Has anyone else flown the direct flight to nashville from Richmond  or Nashville to Richmond?

That flight is usually an A320, but I’m sure the delay (for whatever reason) was the cause for the smaller aircraft.  I hate to hear stories like this, but I know it happens from time to time. I’ve never flown to Nashville, but I’ve done the RIC to Orlando several times and haven’t had any problems...except once where we had to switch planes for a smaller one (similar to this situation) and all the seat assignments were all jacked up. 

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35 minutes ago, vaceltic said:

I will be flying RIC to BNA in a few weeks and will report back. As of right now, the flight to Nashville is only half full with two weeks to go. 

How do you know it's half-full?  I often go online to do my seat selection for Delta flights a day or two before and the flight looks like it is plenty empty only to have it nearly oversold by the time my flight comes up.  I think a lot of people aren't savvy about online seat selection. 

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48 minutes ago, jbjust said:

How do you know it's half-full?  I often go online to do my seat selection for Delta flights a day or two before and the flight looks like it is plenty empty only to have it nearly oversold by the time my flight comes up.  I think a lot of people aren't savvy about online seat selection. 

True that!  It could be showing only the seats that have been reserved and assigned.  Many people don't pick their seat because it costs to do so and they let the airline do it at the last minute.  Therefore, it won't show that the seats are assigned yet.  I'm sure the flight is full or near full at this point.

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