Richmond International Airport

[I miss RVA]

1 hour ago, eandslee said:

Noticed stupidly low price on the RIC-LAS route on Spirit Airlines. Flights are going for $80 each way for a standard ticket ($66 each way if you are a club member)!  That’s $159.78 for a standard round trip ticket (not including the price of baggage)!  Still, that’s like crazy low!  Not seeing this advertised anywhere…nothing…and it shows. The load factors appear to be super low on any of these flights.  At that price, these flights should be PACKED!  But since no one knows about this deal, no one will book. Frustrating!

Wow!! Yeah - someone has to get the word out. Like you said, those flights should be packed like sardine cans. Methinks the marketing dept. is asleep at the switch! 

[blopp1234]

1 hour ago, eandslee said:

Noticed stupidly low price on the RIC-LAS route on Spirit Airlines. Flights are going for $80 each way for a standard ticket ($66 each way if you are a club member)!  That’s $159.78 for a standard round trip ticket (not including the price of baggage)!  Still, that’s like crazy low!  Not seeing this advertised anywhere…nothing…and it shows. The load factors appear to be super low on any of these flights.  At that price, these flights should be PACKED!  But since no one knows about this deal, no one will book. Frustrating!

We are still an over a month out so it wouldn’t shock me to see that the flight isn’t half full yet. Usually flights tend to fill up later on as people get last minute deals on flights or hotels (not everyone likes to plan half a year in advance or more like I do!). I think it will be interesting to see how this route does for spirit but I’m surprised they aren’t really advertising it, especially since they are directly competing with Breeze. 

 

21 hours ago, eandslee said:

ORF is about to build one. I would think that RIC would more than qualify. 

I wouldn’t be too worried about us not having a hotel directly attached to the airport yet. RDU, Charlotte, Reagan, LaGuardia, Kansas City, Austin, and many others don’t have a hotel attached directly to their airport terminal yet. All have nearby facilities, as does RIC with the Sheraton located directly across airport road from the terminal entrance, but I agree it would be nice to have one directly attached to the airport. I will say though that that shouldn’t be high on the priorities list as I’d rather the airport be pursuing new destinations domestically (Seattle, Austin, Salt Lake, etc.) and internationally (Cancun, Montego Bay, Nassau, Toronto, etc.). Not saying both can’t be done but there is a limited amount of money the airport has to work with (sadly) and I would be willing to bet that adding new destinations would increase travelers at the airport more than an airport hotel.

[I miss RVA]

2 hours ago, blopp1234 said:

I agree it would be nice to have one directly attached to the airport. I will say though that that shouldn’t be high on the priorities list as I’d rather the airport be pursuing new destinations domestically (Seattle, Austin, Salt Lake, etc.) and internationally (Cancun, Montego Bay, Nassau, Toronto, etc.). Not saying both can’t be done but there is a limited amount of money the airport has to work with (sadly) and I would be willing to bet that adding new destinations would increase travelers at the airport more than an airport hotel.

 this !!!!  Spot on, @blopp1234Let's get those domestic & international routes established - AND - work on boosting frequencies.

[blopp1234]

Surprised this slipped under our radar but the updated master plan for the airport was released last month and there are some interesting tidbits.

 

First is the updated master plan map:

A lot of it is similar to the previous master plan. 
 

Second is that they give a timeline of the proposed improvements.

 

Based on their timeline, the short term (up to 2024) is largely completed, with notable projects including taxiway improvements, the concourse B apron expansion, and deicing pad.

 

The midterm projects are possibly the most interesting (up to 2030) as they include some major developments for the airport, such as the expansions of concourses A & B, and relocation of all the cargo facilities to the other side of runway 16/34. The fact that the airport expects to be moving on these projects by 2030 shows just how ambitious the projections for traffic at the airport are. Elsewhere in the master plan it says that the airport could require up to 40 gates to serve its operations by 2030. 
 

The airport also mentions the possibility of transatlantic destinations, with the main city being mentioned being Dublin, Ireland. While they don’t see this happening in the future, I think it could be possible by 2030 through either Breeze, should they decide to fly transatlantic with a long range A-220 or Aer Lingus on their A321 LR, which is already used to serve cities such as Hartford and Cleveland. 

While none of these improvements are guaranteed, as long as flights from RIC keep leaving with high load factors, the service expansions and new service, will keep coming, leading to the exciting expansions such as Concourse A & B. Hopefully if demand keeps going the way it is, we can get some of these big projects started before 2030.

[I miss RVA]

24 minutes ago, blopp1234 said:

Surprised this slipped under our radar but the updated master plan for the airport was released last month and there are some interesting tidbits.

 

First is the updated master plan map:

A lot of it is similar to the previous master plan. 
 

Second is that they give a timeline of the proposed improvements.

 

Based on their timeline, the short term (up to 2024) is largely completed, with notable projects including taxiway improvements, the concourse B apron expansion, and deicing pad.

 

The midterm projects are possibly the most interesting (up to 2030) as they include some major developments for the airport, such as the expansions of concourses A & B, and relocation of all the cargo facilities to the other side of runway 16/34. The fact that the airport expects to be moving on these projects by 2030 shows just how ambitious the projections for traffic at the airport are. Elsewhere in the master plan it says that the airport could require up to 40 gates to serve its operations by 2030. 
 

The airport also mentions the possibility of transatlantic destinations, with the main city being mentioned being Dublin, Ireland. While they don’t see this happening in the future, I think it could be possible by 2030 through either Breeze, should they decide to fly transatlantic with a long range A-220 or Aer Lingus on their A321 LR, which is already used to serve cities such as Hartford and Cleveland. 

While none of these improvements are guaranteed, as long as flights from RIC keep leaving with high load factors, the service expansions and new service, will keep coming, leading to the exciting expansions such as Concourse A & B. Hopefully if demand keeps going the way it is, we can get some of these big projects started before 2030.

WOWZERS!!!!! This is HUGE, folks! I can't wait to download and pour through this updated plan. So it certainly does seem like the airport is projecting a significant and sustained increase in passenger traffic through the rest of this decade. If the last few either side of the pandemic (meaning 2019 and 2022) are any indication - plus the blisteringly-hot start the airport has gotten off to in 2023, then we may well be looking at epic growth. And 40 gates would put us into a whole different - higher - stratus of airports, really opening up the door for MUCH higher capacity.

To your last point, @blopp1234- I think we WILL see these projects get underway before 2030, given the way demand has been increasing - and how those increases have continued to be sustained. Again, take away the NOVA airports and RIC becomes the Commonwealth's busiest airport, hands down. As long as Breeze continues to increase service(particularly frequency) and utilize RIC as an UNOFFICIAL "mini-hub" like (is it Southwest?) does at RDU - and if some of the competitors (read: Spirit) start adding direct service particularly to markets currently not served out of RIC, then it's reasonable to expect that the airport's bullish approach is warranted. I'd still like to get Frontier here and see if we could penetrate a few markets that aren't being served at the moment. The biggest thing, though, is increasing frequency - ESPECIALLY Breeze's frequency. I'd like to see REGULAR bump-ups of 1x daily becoming 2x daily... and then 3x daily... and so on. Who knows - perhaps by 2030 - we could see certain routes as high as 4x or 5x daily. Not saying that's a certainty - but I wouldn't rule it out.

Oh - and @Hike-- methinks you might want to power up your engraver's implement. I'm breaking out the silver polish because we now have additional hardware to dole out this weekend. 

[I miss RVA]

For those of us who are details & numbers nerds, here's the link to the airport's revised master plan.

https://flyrichmond.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/RIC-Master-Plan-2022.pdf

@blopp1234 -- just verifying with you - that's the correct link, yes? And the Master Plan revision was published last July (2022), correct? (meaning, there's not a newer version out there somewhere...)

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by I miss RVA

[blopp1234]

24 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

For those of us who are details & numbers nerds, here's the link to the airport's revised master plan.

https://flyrichmond.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/RIC-Master-Plan-2022.pdf

@blopp1234 -- just verifying with you - that's the correct link, yes? And the Master Plan revision was published last July (2022), correct? (meaning, there's not a newer version out there somewhere...)

 

Yep, just realized I forgot to attach the link to the original post! 

[eandslee]

1 hour ago, I miss RVA said:

For those of us who are details & numbers nerds, here's the link to the airport's revised master plan.

https://flyrichmond.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/RIC-Master-Plan-2022.pdf

@blopp1234 -- just verifying with you - that's the correct link, yes? And the Master Plan revision was published last July (2022), correct? (meaning, there's not a newer version out there somewhere...)

 

I actually saw this earlier this week, but didn’t post it because I was unsure of its validity (date was last year, but just now released?  Also, their website didn’t reflect the updated map).  Also, I couldn’t find the drawing layout that Blopp posted…maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough. I didn’t have a lot of time to get into ALL the details, but some of the projections I looked at in this report were actually kind of…well, not promising.  So, I was feeling down and out about it and didn’t post it.  Thanks Blopp, for finding what I couldn’t seem to find and for highlighting some of the positives.  
 

I did read that as far as a parallel runway is concerned, airports will do an official study for one when the airport hits 60% capacity.  At 80% capacity an airport will usually start building a parallel runway. In the report it said that RIC was operating at only 48% capacity and that it didn’t project that capacity would get to the point of a new parallel runway until about 2055!!  That was a dagger to the heart to read!  I might be dead by then!  It was all based on fairly conservative projections though (in my opinion), so my hope is that reality bucks the projections and we see explosive growth at RIC that wasn’t expected a heck of a lot sooner (within the next 10 years?). We can do it…I mean…RIC can do it!

Edited April 14, 2023 by eandslee

[I miss RVA]

3 hours ago, eandslee said:

I actually saw this earlier this week, but didn’t post it because I was unsure of its validity (date was last year, but just now released?  Also, their website didn’t reflect the updated map).  Also, I couldn’t find the drawing layout that Blopp posted…maybe I wasn’t looking hard enough. I didn’t have a lot of time to get into ALL the details, but some of the projections I looked at in this report were actually kind of…well, not promising.  So, I was feeling down and out about it and didn’t post it.  Thanks Blopp, for finding what I couldn’t seem to find and for highlighting some of the positives.  
 

I did read that as far as a parallel runway is concerned, airports will do an official study for one when the airport hits 60% capacity.  At 80% capacity an airport will usually start building a parallel runway. In the report it said that RIC was operating at only 48% capacity and that it didn’t project that capacity would get to the point of a new parallel runway until about 2055!!  That was a dagger to the heart to read!  I might be dead by then!  It was all based on fairly conservative projections though (in my opinion), so my hope is that reality bucks the projections and we see explosive growth at RIC that wasn’t expected a heck of a lot sooner (within the next 10 years?). We can do it…I mean…RIC can do it!

Good God Almighty... I'll be 93 in 2055 - if I live that long! 

Welp - that just means we work harder to get the airport filled with people flying into and out of RIC/RVA - we fill every single airplane that bellies up to the bar... we demonstrate to the airlines that adding flights and routes is a good - profitable - idea... we demonstrate to airlines currently not serving RIC that coming here is a good and profitable idea. And we market, market, market MARKET the living HELL outta the airport until "RIC" is coming out of people's ears to the proverbial "corners of the earth".

The airport can do a lot to push this needle a lot farther. But the powers that be can't necessarily pack the planes like sardines. However, WE - the flying public - absolutely can! And we can do our part as well to help get the word out to fly RIC. No amount of publicity for this airport - even simple word-of-mouth (or in today's world, 'word-of-Facebook' is too small.

AND - keep in mind that the more companies relocate here (and we all know Greater Richmond Partnership are working their tails off chasing down some potentially big opportunities) and the more the city and metro are marketed (again, GRP among others, publicly stating they need to step up their game) and the more people moving/relocate to and living in metro Richmond and the more people doing business (particularly from out of state & internationally) in metro Richmond and the move people visiting/touring metro Richmond... the more those flights will be packed to the gills.

WE CAN MAKE THIS HAPPEN, FOLKS!!!

Edited April 14, 2023 by I miss RVA

[eandslee]

Just booked my first Breeze Airways flight from RIC to JAX  and back in June.  I'm excited!  Here's why I booked the flight:  Most of you know by now that I live in Northern Virginia, so why would I book out of RIC?  PRICE.  I have to be in Jacksonville, FL for a weekend in June and all other airlines flying out of one of the DC airports were going to charge me at least $335 round trip.  Breeze out of RIC - $170 round trip!  Now, I did not pick a seat and since I'm active military, my bags fly for free.  Still, even if I had to pay for a checked bag, it's still a smashing deal!  So, just proud to say I'll be contributing to passenger counts for the month of June.  Also, I am a perfect example of how RIC can siphon travelers from from even NoVA!  Let's go!

[Icetera]

I have to say that this week's experience with Breeze RIC>PHX was great.  It was also amazing to see the concourse packed upon returning home at 8pm Friday.  The concourse restaurants were absolutely filled and show that there is opportunity for more options.   Of note,  the outside security Applebee's was closed so perhaps once security is combined and it becomes part of the concourses then it will have later hours.

[I miss RVA]

6 minutes ago, Icetera said:

I have to say that this week's experience with Breeze RIC>PHX was great.  It was also amazing to see the concourse packed upon returning home at 8pm Friday.  The concourse restaurants were absolutely filled and show that there is opportunity for more options.   Of note,  the outside security Applebee's was closed so perhaps once security is combined and it becomes part of the concourses then it will have later hours.

That's really great to hear, Ice. Very heartening to imagine RIC's concourses packed with passengers in the manner of larger airports. 

[eandslee]

2 hours ago, Icetera said:

I have to say that this week's experience with Breeze RIC>PHX was great.  It was also amazing to see the concourse packed upon returning home at 8pm Friday.  The concourse restaurants were absolutely filled and show that there is opportunity for more options.   Of note,  the outside security Applebee's was closed so perhaps once security is combined and it becomes part of the concourses then it will have later hours.

Thanks for your report!  Good to hear of your positive experience on Breeze as I will be flying them in early June (and looking forward to it)!  How full were your flights?  This is the all-important question since load factors determine if frequency should increase or not. By my unscientific count, flights to and from PHX have been packed full with very few exceptions.

[Merrittk92]

4 hours ago, Icetera said:

I have to say that this week's experience with Breeze RIC>PHX was great.  It was also amazing to see the concourse packed upon returning home at 8pm Friday.  The concourse restaurants were absolutely filled and show that there is opportunity for more options.   Of note,  the outside security Applebee's was closed so perhaps once security is combined and it becomes part of the concourses then it will have later hours.

 

Flying back from Las Vegas to Richmond on Breeze in two days. Looking forward to seeing what Breeze is all about! 

Edited April 24, 2023 by Merrittk92

[I miss RVA]

16 minutes ago, Merrittk92 said:

 

Flying back from Las Vegas to Richmond on Breeze in two days. Looking forward to seeing what Breeze is all about! 

Looking forward to hearing how it goes and how packed the flight is as well as the airport.

[Merrittk92]

Two RIC TSA Officers save pilots life after he goes into Cardiac Arrest!”

TSA save Pilot’s life

[Merrittk92]

14 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

Looking forward to hearing how it goes and how packed the flight is as well as the airport.

In the past two and a half weeks I have flown out of RIC twice.

April 12th United Embraer 550 to ORD..full!

April 17th United A-320 from ORD..full!

April 23rd United A-320 to ORD ..full! 

April 26th Breeze A-220 from LAS…? 
 

 

Edited April 24, 2023 by Merrittk92

[I miss RVA]

6 minutes ago, Merrittk92 said:

Two RIC TSA Officers save pilots life after he goes into Cardiac Arrest!”

TSA save Pilot’s life

WOWZERS! That young man (Nigel Allen) is a true hero! Talk about donning Superman's cape and springing into action! I get emotional reading these kinds of stories. Just amazing!

3 minutes ago, Merrittk92 said:

In the past two and a half weeks I have flown out of RIC twice.

April 12th United Embraer 550 to ORD..full!

April 17th United A-320 from ORD..full!

April 23rd United A-320 to ORD ..full! 

April 26th Breeze A-220 from LAS…? 
 

 

Sweet!! How packed was the airport?

ORD - wow - you were up in my neck of the woods. You stayed in town or were just passing through?

[blopp1234]

7 minutes ago, Merrittk92 said:

In the past two and a half weeks I have flown out of RIC twice.

April 12th United Embraer 550 to ORD..full!

April 17th United A-320 from ORD..full!

April 23rd United A-320 to ORD ..full! 

Still shocked that UA and American fly CRJs and E550s to Chicago sometimes and not strictly e170s and a320/737s. Doesn’t seem like it will be long though until we do get solely A320s and 737s though to Chicago which will be nice not having to fly on regional aircraft. Glad to hear all the flights were full though as airlines will look at where passengers on flights to hubs are going and that can influence which new routes they add to an extent. 
 

I’ll be flying Breeze out to Cincinnati in about a month and so far the flight is almost 50% full with a month to go before takeoff so that’s a good sign, even on a shorter haul route that didn’t have a ton of indirect passengers prior to Breeze.

Edited April 24, 2023 by blopp1234

[I miss RVA]

8 minutes ago, blopp1234 said:

Still shocked that UA and American fly CRJs and E550s to Chicago sometimes and not strictly e170s and a320/737s. Doesn’t seem like it will be long though until we do get solely A320s and 737s though to Chicago which will be nice not having to fly on regional aircraft. Glad to hear all the flights were full though as airlines will look at where passengers on flights to hubs are going and that can influence which new routes they add to an extent. 
 

I’ll be flying Breeze out to Cincinnati in about a month and so far the flight is almost 50% full with a month to go before takeoff so that’s a good sign, even on a shorter haul route that didn’t have a ton of indirect passengers prior to Breeze.

It'll be nice to weed out regional aircraft in favor of the larger, standard airliners. I'm guessing full planes would also impact frequencies, even to hubs, no?

[Merrittk92]

18 minutes ago, Merrittk92 said:

In the past two and a half weeks I have flown out of RIC twice.

April 12th United Embraer 550 to ORD..full!

April 17th United A-320 from ORD..full!

April 23rd United A-320 to ORD ..full! 

April 26th Breeze A-220 from LAS…? 
 

 

Damnit! April 23rd was United A-320 to DEN..not ORD! Packed! 

[I miss RVA]

11 minutes ago, Merrittk92 said:

Damnit! April 23rd was United A-320 to DEN..not ORD! Packed! 

Either way - GOOD TO HEAR!! VERY glad the Denver route is packed! That's huge for us.

[eandslee]

15 minutes ago, Merrittk92 said:

Damnit! April 23rd was United A-320 to DEN..not ORD! Packed! 

There are a couple flights per day in United on A319/20s. So not all of them on United are regional jets.  They are probably all full too!

Good to hear that so many of us are taking flights in or out of RIC…many on Breeze!  Love that we are all supporting the local airport!  Keep it up, folks!!

[I miss RVA]

21 minutes ago, eandslee said:

There are a couple flights per day in United on A319/20s. So not all of them on United are regional jets.  They are probably all full too!

Good to hear that so many of us are taking flights in or out of RIC…many on Breeze!  Love that we are all supporting the local airport!  Keep it up, folks!!

Fully agreed. REALLY happy to hear that flights on different airlines are flying with full aircraft. Of course, I'm PARTICULARLY gratified that we seem to be packing Breeze planes to the gills. That's unquestionably what is needed to grab a few more routes - AND - most importantly - a significant uptick in flight frequencies.

[Icetera]

17 hours ago, eandslee said:

How full were your flights?  This is the all-important question since load factors determine if frequency should increase or not. By my unscientific count, flights to and from PHX have been packed full with very few exceptions.

Both flights appeared to be full.