Richmond International Airport

[eandslee]

Turns out that RIC just had the BEST MARCH ON RECORD!!!!  385,113 passengers - about the 5th or 6th best month ever (best month ever was Aug 2019 at 398,598 passengers)!  That’s saying a whole lot given that March is not a big travel month (usually). Spring break can be at the end of the month depending on what day Easter lands, but wow!…I see this year being a record year for RIC - no doubt!  RIC has never crossed the 400K mark for the month.  I think RIC has the ability to not only cross that mark, but do it several times this year!

Just as an aside, ORF had the best month on record in March at 333,484 passengers. So, kudos to them!  Those are some impressive numbers. RIC used to hover in the upper 200K range some 4-6 years ago to give you some perspective.  

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by eandslee

[I miss RVA]

9 minutes ago, eandslee said:

Turns out that RIC just had the BEST MARCH ON RECORD!!!!  385,113 passengers - about the 5th or 6th best month ever (best month ever was Aug 2019 at 398,598 passengers)!  That’s saying a whole lot given that March is not a big travel month (usually). Spring break can be at the end of the month depending on what day Easter lands, but wow!…I see this year being a record year for RIC - no doubt!  RIC has never crossed the 400K mark for the month.  I think RIC has the ability to not only cross that mark, but do it several times this year!

Just as an aside, ORF had the best month on record in March at 333,484 passengers. So, kudos to them!  Those are some impressive numbers. RIC used to hover in the upper 200K range some 4-6 years ago to give you some perspective.  

 

Good Golly Miss Molly!! 

Yeah -- 400K is VERY reachable, and I think you're right - we WILL break through 400K multiple times this year.

While it might be a stretch to think we'll hit half a million in any given month, if this level of success prompts further increases in air service - in terms of 1.) more frequency on existing routes, 2.) additional routes and 3.) LARGER aircraft... hitting 500K in a month is something that should be doable within the next year or so, I would think.

Just to put the March numbers in perspective - it means we averaged 12,423 passengers passing through the gates EVERY DAY in March. Even though it's a 30-day month (vs 31 days) - what's the over/under we crack 400K for April? When do all the extra seasonal flights start kicking in in earnest - May, yes?

Edited April 26, 2023 by I miss RVA

[eandslee]

9 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

Good Golly Miss Molly!! 

Yeah -- 400K is VERY reachable, and I think you're right - we WILL break through 400K multiple times this year.

While it might be a stretch to think we'll hit half a million in any given month, if this level of success prompts further increases in air service - in terms of 1.) more frequency on existing routes, 2.) additional routes and 3.) LARGER aircraft... hitting 500K in a month is something that should be doable within the next year or so, I would think.

Just to put the March numbers in perspective - it means we averaged 12,423 passengers passing through the gates EVERY DAY in March. Even though it's a 30-day month (vs 31 days) - what's the over/under we crack 400K for April? When do all the extra seasonal flights start kicking in in earnest - May, yes?

All the seasonal flights start in May. I would suspect we’d see another spike in passenger numbers that month.

 Regarding April - for some reason my senses are saying (that’s to say this is a guess) that April wasn’t “fireworks good.” I think it was a solid month, but we probably won’t break the 400K mark in April. Hopefully, I’m wrong, but my observations don’t give me a sense that we will. Still, there is a lot of the year left and the month of May just might be the springboard that sets the new passenger numbers standard for RIC!

I hope the success in March gets some media attention.  RIC needs the free advertising and positive publicity!

[I miss RVA]

24 minutes ago, eandslee said:

I hope the success in March gets some media attention.  RIC needs the free advertising and positive publicity!

Fully agreed! 

@RVABizSenseMike- I know (and appreciate that) there are a lot of stories in the hopper for the RBS staff (meaning lots of very full plates) and no one reporter who is necessarily on the "airport beat" - but honestly, 385K passengers in March - an all-time record for the month - IS newsworthy, wouldn't you agree?

Maybe worth at least a few lines of copy and a few quotes from airport officials, no?

Edited April 26, 2023 by I miss RVA

[eandslee]

Was just checking some load factors through mock bookings online for some popular flights coming up and man, Spirit Airlines is running a SUPER cheap deal to and from Las Vegas. How do fares as low as $31 each way sound?  Well, Spirit is offering that.  Even if you have to pay for checked luggage or a carry-on bag that’s bigger than a personal item, that is a smashing deal!!  The bad part is that it doesn’t look like flights are getting booked (unless no one is electing to select their seats).  It’s frustrating to me to see this because I know that there has been no advertising and these flights would fill up if travelers knew about them. Any story that was released in the media was initiated by me when I started reaching out to media outlets!   I just don’t understand why Spirit is not advertising this flight in Richmond and the surrounding areas.  It’s just baffling to me.  I really hope the flights are successful; I’m just unsure if Spirit feels the same as me!

[Merrittk92]

Just landed 2hrs ago, Breeze 117 LAS-RIC. Best guess is that the flight was 80% full. 
Smooth 4hr flight. Really enjoyed that A-220!

 

[RVABizSenseMike]

16 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

Fully agreed! 

@RVABizSenseMike- I know (and appreciate that) there are a lot of stories in the hopper for the RBS staff (meaning lots of very full plates) and no one reporter who is necessarily on the "airport beat" - but honestly, 385K passengers in March - an all-time record for the month - IS newsworthy, wouldn't you agree?

Maybe worth at least a few lines of copy and a few quotes from airport officials, no?

I saw the same report and am talking it over with the powers at be. 

[I miss RVA]

20 minutes ago, RVABizSenseMike said:

I saw the same report and am talking it over with the powers at be. 

Awesome!!! Thanks so much, Mike!

[georgeglass]

 

22 hours ago, eandslee said:

 

For what it's worth my husband is now flying every 2 weeks from RIC to Hartford on Breeze. He flies up Monday evening and flies home Friday morning and will be doing that for the next 2 years at least. He was working on the VCU Children's Hospital here and now on a Children's Hospital project in Hartford.

He said the planes he has been on have been mostly full. I do think he said his last flight home was a Breeze thru that was going to Phoenix I think he said.

[I miss RVA]

30 minutes ago, georgeglass said:

 

For what it's worth my husband is now flying every 2 weeks from RIC to Hartford on Breeze. He flies up Monday evening and flies home Friday morning and will be doing that for the next 2 years at least. He was working on the VCU Children's Hospital here and now on a Children's Hospital project in Hartford.

He said the planes he has been on have been mostly full. I do think he said his last flight home was a Breeze thru that was going to Phoenix I think he said.

Coolness!! Great info! Thanks so much, George. Please keep us posted during the course of his travels how the flights are working out, how full, how many are Breeze-thru's, etc. -- it's really good to have eyes and ears on the ground providing this level of granular information. 

[Icetera]

17 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

Coolness!! Great info! Thanks so much, George. Please keep us posted during the course of his travels how the flights are working out, how full, how many are Breeze-thru's, etc. -- it's really good to have eyes and ears on the ground providing this level of granular information. 

My last Friday flight back from PHX would have been a Breeze-thru to Hartford.   Very few were left sitting on the plane, perhaps a dozen at most.  I have no idea how many were continuing from Hartford to PHX on the Monday flight but now I am curious.

[I miss RVA]

57 minutes ago, Icetera said:

My last Friday flight back from PHX would have been a Breeze-thru to Hartford.   Very few were left sitting on the plane, perhaps a dozen at most.  I have no idea how many were continuing from Hartford to PHX on the Monday flight but now I am curious.

How was it between PHX and RIC? You said it was full, yes? Curious if any additional passengers maybe got on at RIC heading north.

[wrldcoupe4]

On top of the strong passenger traffic, what’s driving the huge increase in cargo? March 23 was a 47% year over year increase to over 18 million pounds. 

[I miss RVA]

21 minutes ago, wrldcoupe4 said:

On top of the strong passenger traffic, what’s driving the huge increase in cargo? March 23 was a 47% year over year increase to over 18 million pounds. 

WOW!! That's HUGE. I'd really love to see RIC start moving up in the ranks of upper-echelon airports in terms of cargo volume. I can see it once LEGO and a few of the other recent wins in terms of manufacturing facilities get built and come online. Have we had new facilities open/expand recently?

[eandslee]

57 minutes ago, wrldcoupe4 said:

On top of the strong passenger traffic, what’s driving the huge increase in cargo? March 23 was a 47% year over year increase to over 18 million pounds. 

Perhaps it has to do with the new Amazon fulfillment centers that are in the area. There also has been a lot of warehouses that have been built and leased out to other businesses…maybe there’s some connection. All of this is just speculation on my part. 

[Icetera]

17 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

How was it between PHX and RIC? You said it was full, yes? Curious if any additional passengers maybe got on at RIC heading north.

Considering how packed the concourse was, I imagine quite a few were flying out to Hartford, but I did not pay attention to the seating around the gate.

[I miss RVA]

4 hours ago, Icetera said:

Considering how packed the concourse was, I imagine quite a few were flying out to Hartford, but I did not pay attention to the seating around the gate.

Hearing that the concourses are packed with passengers these days is REALLY heartening! I wonder how much more traffic (passengers AND flights) we need to reach before the airport moves to expand/extend the concourses and add gates? (Particularly since they're saying now that the concourses and extra gates might need to be in place by 2030...)

[I miss RVA]

The Times-Dispatch had coverage of the new March passenger record at RIC. VERY glad to see the positive publicity. Hopefully the more coverage and positive pub the airport receives, the more the word will get out and that more folks will make use of RIC rather than schlepping to competitor airports for their travel needs. I'll be eager to see how the additional service that is coming online this month will impact final May numbers - methinks we could be in for a real treat of a plethora of new monthly records as we move ahead through 2023.

Stay tuned!

From Sunday's Richmond Times-Dispatch:

https://richmond.com/travel/local/richmond-international-airport-covid/article_5fc5a6d8-e608-11ed-a5c5-53bc08af4393.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

[eandslee]

3 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

The Times-Dispatch had coverage of the new March passenger record at RIC. VERY glad to see the positive publicity. Hopefully the more coverage and positive pub the airport receives, the more the word will get out and that more folks will make use of RIC rather than schlepping to competitor airports for their travel needs. I'll be eager to see how the additional service that is coming online this month will impact final May numbers - methinks we could be in for a real treat of a plethora of new monthly records as we move ahead through 2023.

Stay tuned!

From Sunday's Richmond Times-Dispatch:

https://richmond.com/travel/local/richmond-international-airport-covid/article_5fc5a6d8-e608-11ed-a5c5-53bc08af4393.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

Fully agree @I miss RVA!  Despite RTD’s story (which was just a “surface scratching”), I’d still love to see RBS get in on the article action on RIC. There is so much more to dig up than just the monthly passenger counts.  I think it is important for the business (and leisure) traveler community to know what’s going on at the airport.  I’ll say it again - the airport has so much to do with the business community; without it, you wouldn’t have much of a business community in the RVA Metro area. It is interwoven into the fabric of Richmond business and is the foundation of millions and millions of dollars pumped into the local economy every year!  Businesses make corporate move decisions based on the local airport and the service it provides…etc., etc.  It behooves us to promote its growth if we expect to see additional businesses moving to the area.  Getting the word out on the airport’s future plans, new construction, new flights, new airlines, statistics, leadership, services, deals….it all helps to make the region attractive to others looking to make a move especially, if we are utilizing the airport to its maximum…so that it can grow and provide even more attractive services to the business and leisure travel communities.  The airport news is every bit of legitimate business news found anywhere else in the pages of RBS.  Hate to see it going neglected in the news media world.  I’d argue that it hurts the region if we neglect talking about, publishing news about, and promoting the airport.  Just saying. 

Edited May 1, 2023 by eandslee

[I miss RVA]

2 hours ago, eandslee said:

Fully agree @I miss RVA!  Despite RTD’s story (which was just a “surface scratching”), I’d still love to see RBS get in on the article action on RIC. There is so much more to dig up than just the monthly passenger counts.  I think it is important for the business (and leisure) traveler community to know what’s going on at the airport.  I’ll say it again - the airport has so much to do with the business community; without it, you wouldn’t have much of a business community in the RVA Metro area. It is interwoven into the fabric of Richmond business and is the foundation of millions and millions of dollars pumped into the local economy every year!  Businesses make corporate move decisions based on the local airport and the service it provides…etc., etc.  It behooves us to promote its growth if we expect to see additional businesses moving to the area.  Getting the word out on the airport’s future plans, new construction, new flights, new airlines, statistics, leadership, services, deals….it all helps to make the region attractive to others looking to make a move especially, if we are utilizing the airport to its maximum…so that it can grow and provide even more attractive services to the business and leisure travel communities.  The airport news is every bit of legitimate business news found anywhere else in the pages of RBS.  Hate to see it going neglected in the news media world.  I’d argue that it hurts the region if we neglect talking about, publishing news about, and promoting the airport.  Just saying. 

 agreed all the way around, @eandslee. The good news is that Mike has indicated that he's been pushing for coverage with the powers-that-be at RBS. Their biggest hurdle appears to be warm bodies - not enough staffing to necessarily dedicate one reporter to in-depth coverage of the airport. Heck - if I thought they'd actually hire me to write for them, I'd consider coming out of retirement to do some old-fashioned shoe-leather beat reporting on the airport (so long as I could do it remotely). 

At this point, even just the RT-D's cursory, surface-level story is a step up from ZERO reporting. And I do fully agree - the RT-D is not the source that should be most relied upon to cover comings and goings on airport beat. That job belongs to RBS because of the integral part the airport plays in metro RVA's economic and population growth. We all know what the impact of an explosively large airport has had on that Carolina metro area (the name of which, like Voldemort, shall not be mentioned here) that swallowed an entire case of Urban Miracle Grow from the '80s until today. It's not rocket science to suggest that if we saw rapid growth at RIC even at a fraction of what has occurred at CLT over the past 40 years, the RVA metro would see explosive economic and population growth that would put our current period of robust growth to shame. 

All of that said - you're right - we DO need some intensive RBS coverage. I trust Mike - and I know he - and they - are working on it. You never know what goodies might be in store down the road.

[eandslee]

@I miss RVA Come to think of it, I think Mike did say he would accept stories written by others…like you writing a story (or two or three) on the airport!  Come out of retirement for a bit and do some airport stories. You can do it remotely, I’m sure. You just need to talk to @flack4ric who happens to be a member of this community, though I’m not sure how often he shows up (there are other ways to contact him).  I’m sure he’d be happy to talk to you.  After all, he is the official spokesman for the airport!

I’ll just keep this here and let you think about it for a bit…but seriously consider it, please!

[wrldcoupe4]

Here’s another story on the airport growth

https://www.nbc12.com/2023/05/01/richmond-international-airport-sees-record-breaking-numbers-passengers/

helps answer my cargo question as well. 

[eandslee]

10 minutes ago, wrldcoupe4 said:

Here’s another story on the airport growth

https://www.nbc12.com/2023/05/01/richmond-international-airport-sees-record-breaking-numbers-passengers/

helps answer my cargo question as well. 

Just came here to post this same article.  It's a great video to watch - love the excitement and the enthusiasm to use the airport!  Indeed the airport is predicting breaking the 400K passengers a month barrier during the summer - just as I suspected and hopefully, we smash this ceiling!  

[I miss RVA]

19 minutes ago, eandslee said:

Just came here to post this same article.  It's a great video to watch - love the excitement and the enthusiasm to use the airport!  Indeed the airport is predicting breaking the 400K passengers a month barrier during the summer - just as I suspected and hopefully, we smash this ceiling!  

You nailed it on Coupe's question about why cargo volume was up so significantly - Amazon! Good call, brother! Well done!

Yep - 400K is going to be shattered several times this year. That should be a foregone conclusion, barring anything horrific. With THAT said - we need to start asking - what will it take to crack 500K in a month? 

[eandslee]

1 minute ago, I miss RVA said:

You nailed it on Coupe's question about why cargo volume was up so significantly - Amazon! Good call, brother! Well done!

Yep - 400K is going to be shattered several times this year. That should be a foregone conclusion, barring anything horrific. With THAT said - we need to start asking - what will it take to crack 500K in a month? 

I like where you're going with this! 

On a separate note (worth noting), Breeze announced it's first international flight today between LAX and Cabo San Lucas in November this year.  No other international flights have been announced yet, but I have a feeling that Breeze is just getting started.  Also of note, I checked with a friend at the airport today and the international gate that is being renovated to serve international flights should be completed by July/Aug timeframe.  Would be awesome to have some international flights scheduled to break the new gate in as soon as the renovation is complete.  I'm hopeful here...it's coming...it's not a question of "if," it's just a question of "when."