Richmond International Airport

[I miss RVA]

28 minutes ago, eandslee said:

Regarding Avelo - RDU has both a Breeze hub AND an Avelo hub (recently announced).  Granted there aren't a lot of Breeze flights out of RDU yet (maybe 5-6) and about that same amount of Avelo flights (I'm just trying to remember the number of flights off the top of my head, so those numbers could be off a bit).  It'll be interesting to see how this turns out.  One may beat out the other, but if they can both have a hub there, then certainly, RIC could sustain both airlines as well.  Time will tell on this.

Regarding Frontier - Frontier does not have a mid-Atlantic hub.   Richmond would be perfect for one.  Sure, some of the destinations they fly might be the same as some of our current airlines, but isn't that the beauty of competition?  It would be a very bold move, but I think a hub at RIC could make sense...but then again, I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

1.) Agreed. I'd like to think that we could support both Breeze & Avelo.

2.) Frontier:  !!!  And this is why I'm pushing hard for for RIC's powers-that-be to kick it into high gear and put on a full-court press to chase these folks down - get them to put their mid-Atlantic hub here before some other airport grabs them. If we just sit on our hands and not chase after -- and for that matter CREATE -- the opportunity, then we'll lose out to another market - YET AGAIN. I really don't want us to lose out AGAIN to a North Carolina airport or one in Tennessee or South Carolina or even another Virginia airport, be it ORF or DCA.

[Niccckk]

44 minutes ago, eandslee said:

Not sure I agree.  We don't talk about Avelo too much here because RIC doesn't have Avelo...(yet).  From what I've read, they are a pretty nice airline.  They do have a slightly different strategy from Breeze, but it still may be a successful one.  I'm not tracking that they (the airline) will be gone before too long...just gone (maybe) from Newport News airport due to low passenger loads.

I think the Newport News situation is mainly because Newport News is literally sandwiched between RIC and ORF, both with a larger variety of destinations and serve the same destinations that Newport News does.
I don't know, but I've never really been a fan of Avelo that much. Almost all of their planes are literally old Southwest 737-700s (THAT STILL HAVE SOUTHWEST CABINS), they just seem really cheap... like I'm alright with cheap airlines, but I just hate Avelo (just personal opinion) Breeze is a much better fit for RIC. If Avelo tries to add any route of RIC, Breeze will add one in retaliation. I know you gave RDU as an example, but RIC is a much larger airport for Breeze than RDU is.

Edited February 17, 2023 by Niccckk

[I miss RVA]

1 hour ago, Niccckk said:

Yeah... they would've tanked our numbers
Breeze's on-time data isn't the best yet haha. 

 

BUT OVERALL, this is AMAZING for RIC!
Really excited to see what this year has in store for us.

1.) True - they may not be stellar at being on time RIGHT NOW...  but JUST YOU WAIT! 

2.)  !!! Fully agree with you. This is SUPER exciting and, like you, I can't wait to see what 2023 will have in store for RIC.

[eandslee]

Okay...well, Frontier does have a focus city in Philly.  I stand corrected...but I consider Philly the Northeast, not mid-Atlantic.  Anyway, these are Frontier's hub/focus cities:

 

Edited February 17, 2023 by eandslee

[I miss RVA]

1 hour ago, eandslee said:

Okay...well, Frontier does have a focus city in Philly.  I stand corrected...but I consider Philly the Northeast, not mid-Atlantic.  Anyway, these are Frontier's hub/focus cities:

 

First - I agree - Philly is not mid-Atlantic (even if they try to posit themselves as such) - they are northeast for certain.

Second - So Frontier has FOUR "focus airport" spots in the southeast - and they're not all that far from each other individually or collectively. NO REASON WHATSOEVER they couldn't set up a similar operation at RIC - Philly is farther away from Richmond than Tampa/Orlando/Miami are from each other, no matter how you slice it. PLUS - Trenton is a long lag putt away from Philly - so there's no reason Richmond would be "too close".

Frontier is a carrier the powers-that-be at RIC NEEEEEEEED to be pursuing and chasing them down HARD. Worst case - at least pick up direct service to a few select destinations - Orlando, Tampa (even through Breeze goes there), Trenton or Philly, Miami, Chicago Midway (is Southwest still offering direct to Midway from RIC?), and maybe Denver. Get them in there and flying out of here and see what happens. Who knows - perhaps they select RIC for their mid-Atlantic "focus airport" - and between Frontier and Breeze - we get some REALLLLLY good direct service that punches WAY above our current weight - and helps drive passenger traffic.

It's worth a try - and if we just sit on our hands, we lose out. You don't win the lottery/powerball if you don't plunk down a dollar on a ticket.

Edited February 17, 2023 by I miss RVA

[Niccckk]

23 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

(is Southwest still offering direct to Midway from RIC?)

Yes 1x daily

[blopp1234]

I hate to pop any bubbles here but I don’t see frontier ever setting up a focus city or hub in RIC. While not officially, RDU has basically become a focus city without the title. They have flights across frontiers network ranging from Vegas to DFW to Buffalo, Trenton and multiple more. I don’t think  we will see more than a few routes to hubs or Florida from Frontier.

 

As far as Avelo goes, it’s not a bad airline. They have very high load factors across a good chunk of their system. They have developed a strong hub in New Haven with average load factors above 80%. Newport News has proven in recent years to be a bad place to fly out of as ORF and RIC have trended towards lower fares and more destinations and frequencies. RIC and ORF tend to split the peninsula for passenger traffic so almost any airline that tries to establish at PHF hasn’t had success since AirTran. 

[eandslee]

2 minutes ago, blopp1234 said:

I hate to pop any bubbles here but I don’t see frontier ever setting up a focus city or hub in RIC. While not officially, RDU has basically become a focus city without the title. They have flights across frontiers network ranging from Vegas to DFW to Buffalo, Trenton and multiple more. I don’t think  we will see more than a few routes to hubs or Florida from Frontier.

No bubble popped here.  I figured that if it was going to happen, it would have happened already.  I really knew it wasn't going to happen when Frontier started flights out of ORF instead of RIC a few years ago.  If anything, my bubble was popped then.  It's a nice and fun thought though.

[plain]

I'm definitely not very knowledgeable about airlines, I just gotta ask: why does Frontier have both Philly and Trenton as focus cities?

[I miss RVA]

1 hour ago, blopp1234 said:

I hate to pop any bubbles here but I don’t see frontier ever setting up a focus city or hub in RIC. While not officially, RDU has basically become a focus city without the title. They have flights across frontiers network ranging from Vegas to DFW to Buffalo, Trenton and multiple more. I don’t think  we will see more than a few routes to hubs or Florida from Frontier.

 

As far as Avelo goes, it’s not a bad airline. They have very high load factors across a good chunk of their system. They have developed a strong hub in New Haven with average load factors above 80%. Newport News has proven in recent years to be a bad place to fly out of as ORF and RIC have trended towards lower fares and more destinations and frequencies. RIC and ORF tend to split the peninsula for passenger traffic so almost any airline that tries to establish at PHF hasn’t had success since AirTran. 

Good to know.  CLT has 5 destinations - and RDU has 25.

Nothing more than a handful of flights to hubs or Florida? I wonder if we could pick up a couple of the routes outside of straight-up hubs? I see out of RDU they fly to Cancun and San Juan among other places. International possibilities down the road? How about Dallas? Cleveland, Cincy? Florida? (you mentioned FL), Austin? You never know - pie in the sky, I'm sure - but again, if we don't try, we don't get. At least we have to make a run at them and see what happens.

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by I miss RVA

[blopp1234]

2 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

Good to know.  CLT has 5 destinations - and RDU has 25.

Nothing more than a handful of flights to hubs or Florida? I wonder if we could pick up a couple of the routes outside of straight-up hubs? I see out of RDU they fly to Cancun and San Juan among other places. International possibilities down the road? How about Dallas? Cleveland, Cincy? Florida? (you mentioned FL), Austin? You never know - pie in the sky, I'm sure - but again, if we don't try, we don't get. At least we have to make a run at them and see what happens.

 

I could see Denver, Orlando and Fort Myers as the most realistic or maybe if we’re lucky Las Vegas or Dallas (since they are adding a crew base there). Cleveland isn’t a big enough focus city I don’t think for service so unless Cleveland grows, I don’t see a chance, Hopefully Breeze has success with Cincinnati but I don’t know if that route is big enough for 2 airlines. Austin has almost no frontier routes anyways (they only have Denver and Las Vegas) so I doubt we would get service there over one of their existing hubs (Southwest or American would be more likely to add Austin).
 

I just don’t see Frontier committing to Richmond just like JetBlue hasn’t committed to ORF. I think of all the airlines at RIC, Breeze, JetBlue and Southwest have the most potential for expansion and outside of maybe a few routes (Austin, Salt Lake, LA, Seattle) I don’t see the legacy carriers adding routes. Maybe Allegiant could add a few (Destin/Fort Walton, Savannah, West Palm, Indianapolis) as well.

[I miss RVA]

43 minutes ago, blopp1234 said:

I could see Denver, Orlando and Fort Myers as the most realistic or maybe if we’re lucky Las Vegas or Dallas (since they are adding a crew base there). Cleveland isn’t a big enough focus city I don’t think for service so unless Cleveland grows, I don’t see a chance, Hopefully Breeze has success with Cincinnati but I don’t know if that route is big enough for 2 airlines. Austin has almost no frontier routes anyways (they only have Denver and Las Vegas) so I doubt we would get service there over one of their existing hubs (Southwest or American would be more likely to add Austin).
 

I just don’t see Frontier committing to Richmond just like JetBlue hasn’t committed to ORF. I think of all the airlines at RIC, Breeze, JetBlue and Southwest have the most potential for expansion and outside of maybe a few routes (Austin, Salt Lake, LA, Seattle) I don’t see the legacy carriers adding routes. Maybe Allegiant could add a few (Destin/Fort Walton, Savannah, West Palm, Indianapolis) as well.

Good analysis - and you definitely have a solid read on the industry. I'd just be curious to know if we've even tried to land Frontier? Heck - even if we got five or six destinations, it would beat what we have now. I'm also curious (aside from the obvious of competition of certain economics) would keep Frontier from even giving us a sniff when they're clearly in a LOT of markets all over the country. Any thoughts?

Yeah -Breeze really seems like it's making a BIG commitment to RVA. On a bit of a smaller scale to what Frontier is doing at RDU - but it's almost like we're becoming a mini-hub without any kind of title. 

Aside from that - when I hear folks say they don't ever see Frontier or Avelo coming here, much less EVER putting a focus city here, or they don't see Breeze EVER putting a hub/focus city here, or they don't see the big legacy carriers EVER putting a hub here (heck - you're saying they likely won't even add routes!) - then I have to ask: WTF are we left with? Because when I hear that - and it doesn't seem to matter WHAT airline gets mentioned - no one ever sees them putting a hub here - that's saying to me that we may as well shelve the master plan expansion drawings -- they're obviously not going to be needed -- and we should completely forget about EVER  -  E V E R  -  seeing a hub of ANY kind at this airport. From ANY airline. At ANY time. Period. Because - for whatever reason (fill in the blank) it's just not going to happen. 

What I am hearing is: "RIC will NEVER BE A HUB. PERIOD. GET OVER IT!" That's what I'm hearing.

WOW - we really appear to have screwed the pooch in 1978 when we said "thanks, but no thanks" to Piedmont. And for SOME reason, other markets have gotten opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to snag hubs, focus cities, regardless of how close they were to other markets - whereas good ol' RIC and RVA - well, we had our one chance, blew it, fumbled it away at the goal line and that was it. No more chances. No opportunities. Game over.

If I'm off base on any of this, please enlighten me because - GOD - do you have ANY idea how frustrating this is? And @blopp1234you really do have a very solid read and good insights as to the airline industry and RIC's part in it. I very much appreciate your knowledge on these things. 

I'm really starting to get the feeling that RIC is doomed to be forever "friend zoned" when it comes to the airline industry. Either we're not big enough/good enough a market to warrant service of ANY kind (say from Frontier, for example), or were a nice enough market to warrant a few spoke flights to their hubs (like the legacy carriers) - and nothing more. Not even a first kiss or holding hands (if you get the analogy). Basically, we're like the really "nice" guy who women claim to all want, but when it comes down to brass tacks, he's SO nice that he gets friend zoned - or - every woman he approaches legitimately already has a partner. Again, if you understand the analogy. Seems like all the airlines have long-since filled out their dance cards and with a couple of exceptions, they either skip over RIC (and by extension RVA) altogether - or - give us just a few morsels.  Spoke routes to hubs. Because that's all we're good for. Nothing more. Which puts a glass ceiling over us - keeping RIC trapped as an -- at-best -- midsized Tier 2 or Tier 3 regional airport. Only thanks to Breeze do we seem to be on the verge of breaking through that glass ceiling and becoming something that at least has the appearance of a burgeoning "national" level airport.

Wow - relative to all these other carriers, Breeze really does seem to be the notable exception, for which we are truly thankful. Maybe their presence and what they're doing will spur some of the other carriers to jump on board and kick service into a much higher gear.

And I'm looking at this from beyond JUST the airport perspective - I'm looking at it from the standpoint of growth. Unlocking that airport's potential and actualizing it is one of the BIG keys that unlocks the supernova growth I so desperately want for Richmond, both city and metro. It's one of the keys that will help lure businesses here from points unknown - businesses who will bring not dozens, not hundreds, but THOUSANDS of jobs here - fueling population growth AND furthering the cycle of increased passenger traffic growth. This airport REALLY blowing up in passenger traffic volume, direct flights, international service, etc. -- as has happened in the two North Carolina cities (among many other locations) -- is one of THE BIGGEST keys to unlocking Pandora's Magical Box of Urban Miracle Grow - and I'm frustrated to the point that I'm ready to take a damn crowbar to pry open that box. I realize no crowbar will open it - but a MUCH bigger and MUCH BETTER-served airport absolutely WILL open it.

With all of that said, I'm still bullish on the airport at least to a certain extent - and at least in terms of what its potential is and of all the possibilities of what could be, even though this current situation gets REALLY frustrating. You have no idea how much so.

Edited February 18, 2023 by I miss RVA

[blopp1234]

Speaking of kicking service into higher gear, it seems that Spirit now is offering bookable flights from Richmond to Las Vegas, nonstop and daily service. Seems to start in June however no announcement has been made yet. They would be competing with Breeze on this route which would have 12 round trip flights per week this summer between Richmond and Las Vegas. I’ll keep searching for a news report on this but seems like this is more good news for RIC. 
 

And regarding the RIC becoming a hub, it’s not necessarily just related to RIC. Legacy Carriers which consists of American, Delta and United primarily use the hub and spoke model with very few exceptions. This doesn’t mean there won’t be new routes form these carriers added to RIC, it just means they wont open a hub here. That doesn’t mean we couldn’t get major expansion from a JetBlue per se or Breeze, Allegiant or even Southwest or Avelo. To be honest, RIC is adding routes at a rate faster than it has at any other point in its history and shows no sign of slowing down, especially with this spirit airlines announcement. 

Edited February 18, 2023 by blopp1234

[eandslee]

I hear ya @I miss RVA!  The sense I get is that folks still have the old thought that “Richmond will never amount to anything” and this includes the airport. Now, what I don’t fully understand is how much the surrounding larger airports affect RIC. I know there is some effect - clearly the NOVA airports siphon many Central Virginia air travelers due to either price, nonstop routes, international flights, more nonstop destinations, etc.  At least, that is the case right now.  However, I can imagine a world where Richmond (and Central Virginia) is actually big enough to warrant its own world class airport with all or many of the benefits of the NOVA airports one day. I don’t think I’ll never say never, but the old mindset that RVA can’t be anything more than a city living in the shadows of DC and Norfolk is BS to me and is a huge hinderance to, not only the growth of the Metro area, but also the airport.  Frustrates me to death!  If I had a dime for every time I’ve been told that “it” (whatever that is) will never happen here, not RVA…I’d be a very rich man!  The fact of the matter is, it’s just not true!!  What is true though, is that RVA won’t be anything more if the people don’t believe it can be!  This goes for all the airport staff and leadership, the members of the airport commission…even business leaders in the community!  We can’t continue to have this kind of mindset. It’s self-defeating.  We have to be innovative and come up with ways to be more…think outside the box and achieve more that way. Sure, the cards appear to be stacked against us, whether it be our location (too close to DC), our smaller population compared to major cities, etc…but I think our biggest obstacle is the overall mindset of those leaders in the Metro area…and by default, everyone else.  We have to have to desire to achieve, set goals to achieve them, and then do something about it (whatever it takes to achieve those goals).  If there is a desire to make RIC a premier airport, by all means, let’s do it and quit buying to the idea that RIC will always live in NOVA airports’ shadows.

I’m not pointing the finger at anyone on this forum, but this is a collective mindset that has to change.  Things are changing a little…but more can be done.  I think we should shoot to be an airline hub.  Sound crazy?  Maybe for some, but to me, it’s achievable and we should do what it takes to achieve it!  

Heck, I’ve already reached out to the airport offering up a way to market the airport in a way that’s not been done before in an effort to offer help (since the marketing of the airport is almost non-existent).  I got a response, but it was as if to say, “Okay there bud, we’ll look into it (but not really).”  Frustrating!

Sorry, long post. 

[I miss RVA]

26 minutes ago, blopp1234 said:

Speaking of kicking service into higher gear, it seems that Spirit now is offering bookable flights from Richmond to Las Vegas, nonstop and daily service. Seems to start in June however no announcement has been made yet. They would be competing with Breeze on this route which would have 12 round trip flights per week this summer between Richmond and Las Vegas. I’ll keep searching for a news report on this but seems like this is more good news for RIC. 
 

And regarding the RIC becoming a hub, it’s not necessarily just related to RIC. Legacy Carriers which consists of American, Delta and United primarily use the hub and spoke model with very few exceptions. This doesn’t mean there won’t be new routes form these carriers added to RIC, it just means they wont open a hub here.

That doesn’t mean we couldn’t get major expansion from a JetBlue per se or Breeze, Allegiant or even Southwest or Avelo.

To be honest, RIC is adding routes at a rate faster than it has at any other point in its history and shows no sign of slowing down, especially with this spirit airlines announcement. 

1.) WOW - talk about timely good news! Well that takes the sting out of things a bit. 

2.) Very true - they've been locked into this model for decades now and it ain't gonna change anytime soon. Here's hoping though that they do add some new routes flying out of RIC.

3.) From your keyboard to God's eyes, my dear friend!! 

4.) THIS is VERY true! And it's pretty damn awesome, isn't it? I don't EVER remember this level of service expansion at RIC or it coming quite as hot and heavy as it has been. And as to the assessment that it's showing NO signs of slowing down - again, from your keyboard to God's eyes, my friend! 

[blopp1234]

Confirming that Spirit will be operating RIC-LAS on an A320 daily starting in May 2023.

[Niccckk]

Like said above, we're getting daily Las Vegas service with Spirit!!! Confirmed by the Ishrion Man! 

[eandslee]

This is getting quite interesting!  Let’s keep the pedal to the metal!  More!  More!

Edited February 18, 2023 by eandslee

[Oaktowntwinz]

Hello everyone,

I'm a lurker who has always been impressed by the dedication of posters to this site and the city.  For what its worth, I used to post occasionally but somehow got "kicked off" so I didn't bother attempting to register again.  The reason I'm posting now is that, after reading eandslee's last post, I thought he was correct in his assessment of the defeatist attitude of some in Richmond. I worked for a number of airlines which helped me have some understanding of the dynamics involved in that industry.  I think you guys need to let the idea of Richmond becoming a hub dissipate.  The list of former hubs is proof that hubs are dinosaurs.  Cincinnati, Memphis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Dayton never recovered from losing hub status.  This is why Breeze took advantage of the situation and established point to point travel, which eliminated the need to change planes which is why hubs were created in the first place. As a result, Richmond is seeing air service that people said would "never happen".  In the meantime, Breeze quickly changed plans and eliminated service to cities such as San Antonio and Oklahoma City when the numbers weren't conducive to their business model.  They were able to do this quickly because they weren't dependent on a hub. 

BTW,  I don't live in Richmond.  I've traveled on Breeze nonstop between San Francisco and Richmond.  I've taken this trip several times and plan to continue.  Nonstop makes a huge difference.  Also, the airport in Richmond is beautiful. I think its comparable to San Jose or Oakland.  The number of flights available is really not up to airport management or city hall.  They can lobby airlines for new service but they can't mandate it. Hope this helps. Thanks again for all of your efforts and I apologize for the lengthy post.

[eandslee]

58 minutes ago, Oaktowntwinz said:

Hello everyone,

I'm a lurker who has always been impressed by the dedication of posters to this site and the city.  For what its worth, I used to post occasionally but somehow got "kicked off" so I didn't bother attempting to register again.  The reason I'm posting now is that, after reading eandslee's last post, I thought he was correct in his assessment of the defeatist attitude of some in Richmond. I worked for a number of airlines which helped me have some understanding of the dynamics involved in that industry.  I think you guys need to let the idea of Richmond becoming a hub dissipate.  The list of former hubs is proof that hubs are dinosaurs.  Cincinnati, Memphis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Dayton never recovered from losing hub status.  This is why Breeze took advantage of the situation and established point to point travel, which eliminated the need to change planes which is why hubs were created in the first place. As a result, Richmond is seeing air service that people said would "never happen".  In the meantime, Breeze quickly changed plans and eliminated service to cities such as San Antonio and Oklahoma City when the numbers weren't conducive to their business model.  They were able to do this quickly because they weren't dependent on a hub. 

BTW,  I don't live in Richmond.  I've traveled on Breeze nonstop between San Francisco and Richmond.  I've taken this trip several times and plan to continue.  Nonstop makes a huge difference.  Also, the airport in Richmond is beautiful. I think its comparable to San Jose or Oakland.  The number of flights available is really not up to airport management or city hall.  They can lobby airlines for new service but they can't mandate it. Hope this helps. Thanks again for all of your efforts and I apologize for the lengthy post.

Thanks for the post @Oaktowntwinz.  I remember you from a long time ago - welcome back!

I’m okay with letting the idea of a hub die as long as doing so is the wave of the future in the airline industry. Breeze has really invested in Richmond. In fact, below is what Ishrion Aviation (a very prominent follower of the airline industry) said about Breeze and Richmond.  Perhaps this model will be more successful than the hub and spoke model.

Additionally, Breeze Airways continues to grow in Richmond (RIC) with the addition of nonstop routes to Islip (ISP) and Cincinnati (CVG). Last month, Breeze announced a new transcontinental route from RIC to Los Angeles (LAX). With these new flights, Breeze now offers 12 nonstop routes out of Richmond, making the city its largest non-base station in terms of number of routes.

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by eandslee

[eandslee]

May 2023 is shaping up to be a HUGE month for RIC.   Currently, I'm tracking the following new flights:

• Spirit Airlines - Daily nonstop service between RIC and LAS - Starts  5May (from what I can see on their website) - See below for pricing
• Sun Country Airlines - 2 times a week nonstop service between RIC and MSP - Starts 19 May - See below for pricing
• Delta Airlines - Daily nonstop service between RIC and MSP - Starts sometime in May (couldn't find the date)
• Breeze Airways - 3-4 times a week nonstop service between RIC and LAX - Starts 18 May (Sample pricing below)
  • Seasonal 2-3 times a week nonstop service between RIC and ISP - Starts 18 May  (Sample pricing below)
  • Seasonal 2 times a week nonstop service between RIC and CVG - Starts 19 May (Sample pricing below)

* Who knows what new increased service there might be for the summer that I'm not tracking.  Anyone heard of any others that I'm missing for May?

Later on this year (September 2023) Southwest Airlines plans to restart its daily service between RIC and DEN.

 

 

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by eandslee

[Niccckk]

JetBlue is probably kicking themselves in the foot for dropping LAS and LAX.

[eandslee]

36 minutes ago, Niccckk said:

JetBlue is probably kicking themselves in the foot for dropping LAS and LAX.

If the merger with Spirit goes through, JetBlue will have the RIC-LAS route again!

[eandslee]

Okay folks, if you're into digging in the actual flight data, etc. for Breeze for the month of November 2022, here it is.  Remember, based on the total passenger counts for the airport last year (you can see it clear on my line graph above), November and December showed pretty low passenger counts for RIC (oddly enough, given the holidays).  So, take that into consideration when checking out the link below.  Also, I've taken some of the summary of data from the guy who originally posted this so that you get an understanding of data.  I'm not going to draw any conclusions just yet (though he did rank RIC #5 of all Breeze stations)...just wanted to get this out there for you to look at (sorry about the blue background...don't know how to get rid of it):

Source data is the DOT published data through November 22

Click this link for the overall data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... ue&sd=true

Summary of data:

First few tabs are summary of the entire performance across all stations, then it works through 4 Tiers based on the number of routes logged on their website route map, I took a snapshot a few weeks ago, so might have missed one or two here or there, I remove any extraneous data like diverts or obvious charters, and that's how I show the data.

I’ve taken a look at the forward route network and have moved a few stations around accordingly this month. This might leave some things in strange places like HPN, that on pax counts probably should be in tier 1, but forward network says Tier 2.

Tier 1: CHS, ORF, BDL, MSY, LAS, TPA, (RIC and PVD From Tier 2)
Tier 2: HPN, JAX, CMH, CAK, (MCO From Tier 4), (SFO, PVU From Tier 3)
Tier 3: PBI, SDF, PIT, (LAX, PHX New Stations), (HSV, XNA, SBD, ISP From Tier 4)
Tier 4: TUL, (SAV, BNA From Tier 3), SYR, SRQ, OKC, RSW and SAT (noting that OKC and SAT are for historic purposes only at this point)
 

Data Sets:
Current Month – November 22
Prior Month – October 22
Q4 22
YTD
2021
November 21 vs November 22
You will see info on flights, seats, passengers, capacity %, miles, average stage lengths, air time, etc. I've used about every metric they have in the specific file.

So I hope you find this useful.

Key Data from the report:

October:
1,409 flights recorded, 170,566 seats and 126,848 passengers (74.4%), against 1,359 flights recorded, 161,666 seats and 121,547 passengers (75,2%) in October, Average Pax on flights increased by 1 from 89 to 90

Reconciliation:
1,359 flights in September, (0) – for terminated routes, 1 extra for resumed routes, (87) reduction for general operations and 136 from brand new routes = 1,409 flights in October
Seats were up 5,5% overall, Pax up 4.4% Month to Month
YTD
11,323 flights, 1,347,350 seats and 906,530 passengers (67.3%), 1m for 2022 is almost certain at this point

A223 ops ticked up slightly to 46.4% from 44.4% with 654 flights in November vs 603 in October

New Routes:
Top:
LAX-CHS – 82.6%
LAX-HPN – 82.5%

Bottom:
TPA-SYR – 64.1%
HPN-SRQ – 64.1%

Although LAS-TPA was 33.8%, only 2 flights at that point.

Highest number of passengers:
CHS – 42,488 - 336K YTD (both directions combined)
TPA – 17,931 – 205K YTD
HPN – 16,178 – 34K YTD
BDL – 16,050 – 124K YTD
LAS – 14,948 – 52K YTD


Station Rankings:
1. PIT – Tier 3 – 86.6% (44 flights)
2. PVD – Tier 1 – 83.8% (90 flights)
3. XNA – Tier 3 – 82.1% (34 Flights)
4. LAX – Tier 3 – 81.9% (67 flights)
5. RIC – Tier 1 – 78.7% (139 flights)

30. TUL – Tier 4 – 54.4% (16 flights)
29. BNA – Tier 4 – 62.4% (63 flights)
28. SAV – Tier 4 – 64.8% (40 flights)
27. HPN – Tier 2 – 65.4% (205 flights)
26. MCO – Tier 2 – 67.3% (32 flights)
 

[blopp1234]

More proof RIC has been a huge money maker for Breeze. All of our routes have over 70% load factor, which would be considered profitable even for a full service airline like American , Delta, United or Southwest. 
 

I don’t see Breeze rolling over and letting spirit beat them on this route. This route has done well for them so I would assume they lower prices or increase frequency to match Spirit on this route (which is very good for RIC). Should be interesting to see how that route pans out for both but hopefully, there are enough passengers to where both airlines are able to do well and stay on the route. Many cities have multiple airlines serving Las Vegas so I’d assume both will have success, but Breeze will need to get their On time performance fixed as they’ll be in trouble otherwise.