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Richmond International Airport


eandslee

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3 hours ago, Flood Zone said:

Wow! My wife and I were all set to book a family trip to Charleston - a place we want to go! -- until we looked at the calendar and saw baseball tournaments and dance recitals fill up every weekend through June 20. Next time!

How old are your kids? Baseball tournaments and dance (and music) recitals are those magic moments that can't be missed. Charleston will still be there down the road (unless a Cat 5 hurricane gets squirrelly off the South Carolina coast...)

Edited by I miss RVA
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3 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

How old are your kids? Baseball tournaments and dance (and music) recitals are those magic moments that can't be missed. Charleston will still be there down the road (unless a Cat 5 hurricane gets squirrelly off the South Carolina coast...)

They're 11 and 7. The older one is the baseball player. Thankfully, at that young age, "travel" ball means a tour of local complexes. And the younger one is just satisfied with a Happy Meal after dance practice.

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27 minutes ago, Flood Zone said:

They're 11 and 7. The older one is the baseball player. Thankfully, at that young age, "travel" ball means a tour of local complexes. And the younger one is just satisfied with a Happy Meal after dance practice.

Hey, when you're 7, a Happy Meal is the panacea for a lot of things. VERY cool!

What position does your son play? I know it's a few years ahead still but how do his chances of playing in high school look?

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On 5/2/2023 at 9:53 AM, I miss RVA said:

A more general question not specific to international service - but as RIC's passenger totals grow - as we get more routes and more frequent routes - at what point do you think we'll start to see significantly LARGER aircraft flying into/out of RIC? Not that I'm expecting a 747 or an A380 to roll up to one of our fine gates - but at some point, do you think we'll break out of the small-to-medium-size aircraft that are more-or-less the current standard? I'd love to see a few "heavies" flying in/out of RIC at some point before my happy tuchus gets lowered into the ground. And when I say "small" - I don't mean puddle-jumpers. A 737 is "small".

I miss RVA, it may be possible that you did fly out of RIC on a widebody. The last time I was in Richmond, I saw pictures in baggage claim that included people boarding a widebody. Think it was a DC10. The pictures looked like a permanent display so if someone gets the opportunity maybe they can confirm.  Also, I agree with you re blopp1234's interesting comments.  I thought he did a great job of explaining the industry.  I agree the chances of Richmond procuring an international route this soon are slim.  For new service of that magnitude a lot of prep has to occur. For example an Italian airline has just announced service from San Francisco to Rome.  Service doesn't start until the fall. Airlines get nervous and don't want to waste resources.  If people don't respond, they'll cancel before starting. 

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3 hours ago, Oaktowntwinz said:

I miss RVA, it may be possible that you did fly out of RIC on a widebody. The last time I was in Richmond, I saw pictures in baggage claim that included people boarding a widebody. Think it was a DC10. The pictures looked like a permanent display so if someone gets the opportunity maybe they can confirm.  Also, I agree with you re blopp1234's interesting comments.  I thought he did a great job of explaining the industry.  I agree the chances of Richmond procuring an international route this soon are slim.  For new service of that magnitude a lot of prep has to occur. For example an Italian airline has just announced service from San Francisco to Rome.  Service doesn't start until the fall. Airlines get nervous and don't want to waste resources.  If people don't respond, they'll cancel before starting. 

I distinctly remember flying on a DC10 and the 3-5-3 seat configuration. It felt so good to have what felt like a TON of room -- way less cramped/claustrophobic.

Re: International service - yeah, that makes sense. Kind of a bummer - but honestly, I hope that the international gateway at RIC doesn't just sit fallow for an extremely long time (like a year or two or more) while other competitor airports get new international service established. THAT would be extremely frustrating.

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On 5/9/2023 at 2:23 PM, I miss RVA said:

What position does your son play? I know it's a few years ahead still but how do his chances of playing in high school look?

He's a pitcher and shortstop. He's got a pretty good chance of playing HS ball, but our zoned HS is very competitive in that regard. So we'll see. What he wants to do eventually is coach. 

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33 minutes ago, Flood Zone said:

He's a pitcher and shortstop. He's got a pretty good chance of playing HS ball, but our zoned HS is very competitive in that regard. So we'll see. What he wants to do eventually is coach. 

Sweet!! Yeah - at that age, seems like EVERY ballplayer splits time between pitching and playing a position. Unfortunately, 99.9% of us can't grow up to be Shohei Ohtani! Does your son show a propensity in either direction - better on the mound or in the field, and how is he at the plate?

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On 5/10/2023 at 8:49 PM, Oaktowntwinz said:

I agree the chances of Richmond procuring an international route this soon are slim.  For new service of that magnitude a lot of prep has to occur.

Does customer feedback influence anyone? Example: We're thinking of a Caribbean trip next year. Let's say we book a flight in Jamaica, for example, flying out of Dulles. And let's say we tell the airline and RIC, hey, we would've flown out of Richmond had we the enjoyed the option. And then let's say hypothetically that numerous other people say the same or similar. Does the airline industry operate on word-of-mouth demand, or is there a more tangible metric they use? If it's the latter, then I suspect we have a long wait.

 

On 5/11/2023 at 9:53 AM, I miss RVA said:

Does your son show a propensity in either direction - better on the mound or in the field, and how is he at the plate?

Both mound and field are strong, but his favorite is the mound. He not tall for his age; however, he's tenacious, learned proper mechanics at an even younger age, and has really good control. So he'll get hit a little bit, but he'll keep coming at them and the control keeps his pitch count down. He's 3-1 this spring in travel tournaments with a few complete games. And since he started playing travel ball I've seen phenomenal growth in the field, especially with the footwork. At the plate, he's not a killer but the bat is coming around; lots of lessons on the side.  

Edited by Flood Zone
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1 hour ago, Flood Zone said:

Does customer feedback influence anyone? Example: We're thinking of a Caribbean trip next year. Let's say we book a flight in Jamaica, for example, flying out of Dulles. And let's say we tell the airline and RIC, hey, we would've flown out of Richmond had we the enjoyed the option. And then let's say hypothetically that numerous other people say the same or similar. Does the airline industry operate on word-of-mouth demand, or is there a more tangible metric they use? If it's the latter, then I suspect we have a long wait.

 

Both mound and field are strong, but his favorite is the mound. He not tall for his age; however, he's tenacious, learned proper mechanics at an even younger age, and has really good control. So he'll get hit a little bit, but he'll keep coming at them and the control keeps his pitch count down. He's 3-1 this spring in travel tournaments with a few complete games. And since he started playing travel ball I've seen phenomenal growth in the field, especially with the footwork. At the plate, he's not a killer but the bat is coming around; lots of lessons on the side.  

1.) That's a great question. I'd like to know the answer to that one myself.

2.) Coolness! Complete games - how many innings are games at his age group? Glad he getting the mechanics down! What pitches can he throw? At that age-group/level - are stats like ERA, etc. kept? The bat'll definitely come around with good coaching a LOT of batting practice. 

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After watching that video, would we want to see RIC as a fortress hub?  True the per annum passenger numbers could be very high, but lack of competition could keep prices elevated.  Fortress hubs could also mean more international flights and foreign carriers, especially those in the same alliance.  Interesting question to think about.

Edited by Shakman
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33 minutes ago, Shakman said:

After watching that video, would we want to see RIC as a fortress hub?  True the per annum passenger numbers could be very high, but lack of competition could keep prices elevated.  Fortress hubs could also mean more international flights and foreign carriers, especially those in the same alliance.  Interesting question to think about.

Indeed - it's an interesting question. However, I think that plane has long-since taken off when it comes to RIC. We blew that opportunity to become a "fortress hub" (I love the term) in the mid-late 70s when we said "thanks, but no thanks" to Piedmont when they approached, wanting to put their hub at RIC. After we turned them down, they went to CLT and the rest was history.

We had exactly one shot at it - right at the beginning of deregulation - and we walked away from it. It pains me to say this, but I think we're pretty much stuck with trying to improve and beef up what we've got. Hopefully the ever-evolving paradigm of the airline industry will be kind to RIC and offer ample opportunities to get into the game as a major mid-sized player in the air travel mix. Growing our airport -- and getting it out of the nice, mid-to-larger-sized regional airport - is critical to metro RVA's growth prospects. Thankfully, Breeze has stepped in and, by all accounts, is definitely moving the needle toward making RIC more of a national-level airport by adding flights to the west coast and other markets that had never flown out of RIC previously. Hopefully 2023 and beyond will see a strong continuation of this trend!

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On 5/15/2023 at 1:38 PM, I miss RVA said:

Indeed - it's an interesting question. However, I think that plane has long-since taken off when it comes to RIC. We blew that opportunity to become a "fortress hub" (I love the term) in the mid-late 70s when we said "thanks, but no thanks" to Piedmont when they approached, wanting to put their hub at RIC. After we turned them down, they went to CLT and the rest was history.

We had exactly one shot at it - right at the beginning of deregulation - and we walked away from it. It pains me to say this, but I think we're pretty much stuck with trying to improve and beef up what we've got. Hopefully the ever-evolving paradigm of the airline industry will be kind to RIC and offer ample opportunities to get into the game as a major mid-sized player in the air travel mix. Growing our airport -- and getting it out of the nice, mid-to-larger-sized regional airport - is critical to metro RVA's growth prospects. Thankfully, Breeze has stepped in and, by all accounts, is definitely moving the needle toward making RIC more of a national-level airport by adding flights to the west coast and other markets that had never flown out of RIC previously. Hopefully 2023 and beyond will see a strong continuation of this trend!

Don't be too sad.  The most likely outcome even if we'd embraced Piedmont would have been that RIC would be like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Cleveland, or Memphis -- formerly proud hubs that were ultimately cast aside in the course of airline consolidation.  

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4 hours ago, jbjust said:

Don't be too sad.  The most likely outcome even if we'd embraced Piedmont would have been that RIC would be like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Cleveland, or Memphis -- formerly proud hubs that were ultimately cast aside in the course of airline consolidation.  

Unfortunately, that's probably very true. The whole process of airline consolidation really made a mess of things and concentrated "power" in specific centers where the fortress hubs were. Than again, it didn't happen to CLT. They survived the whole consolidation mess and now are well north of 50 million passengers per year in terms of passenger traffic. Not sure why RIC couldn't have done the same.

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3 minutes ago, eandslee said:

Tomorrow is a big day for the airport (RIC). Tomorrow starts new nonstop service to/from LAX, ISP, and JAX in Breeze!  This is in addition to the usual scheduled flights on Breeze to SFO, LAS, TPA, MSY, CHS, and PVD….all of these flights take place tomorrow!  Wowzas!

….and more nonstops start up within the week!

SWEET!! That's gonna boost up our average daily flight count, too. 👍

What are the other destinations/airlines are starting up within the week in addition to Breeze?

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37 minutes ago, I miss RVA said:

SWEET!! That's gonna boost up our average daily flight count, too. 👍

What are the other destinations/airlines are starting up within the week in addition to Breeze?

Breeze begins Cincinnati on Friday, on top of  Providence, LA, Islip and Jacksonville tomorrow. Sun Country also begins their seasonal twice weekly service to Minneapolis on Friday and Delta starts daily Minneapolis flights next month.

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16 minutes ago, blopp1234 said:

Breeze begins Cincinnati on Friday, on top of  Providence, LA, Islip and Jacksonville tomorrow. Sun Country also begins their seasonal twice weekly service to Minneapolis on Friday and Delta starts daily Minneapolis flights next month.

Thanks, @blopp1234! This really is SUPER exciting! Wow - Delta's going to MSP DAILY?? WOW! I wonder if Sun Country might add another season destination or two - or even something year round? More destinations - and more flights - is always better!

So this really WILL boost our daily average of flights - we just hit about 72 per day when Spirit added the LAS service - so with all of these new flights, our daily average is going to bump up even higher.

Definitely time for the airport mantra:

RIC - Building Terminal 2 and Concourse C -- one new flight at a time!

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6 hours ago, eandslee said:

Tomorrow is a big day for the airport (RIC). Tomorrow starts new nonstop service to/from LAX, ISP, and JAX in Breeze!  This is in addition to the usual scheduled flights on Breeze to SFO, LAS, TPA, MSY, CHS, and PVD….all of these flights take place tomorrow!  Wowzas!

….and more nonstops start up within the week!

So for sh!ts & giggles I looked at Breeze’s bookings for the inaugural LAX service. RIC-LAX has just a handful of seats left, the LAX-RIC return flight is sold out! Nice job RIC. 

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11 hours ago, I miss RVA said:

So this really WILL boost our daily average of flights - we just hit about 72 per day when Spirit added the LAS service - so with all of these new flights, our daily average is going to bump up even higher.

We’re up to about 74.5 flights (on average) a day right now. 

5 hours ago, Merrittk92 said:

So for sh!ts & giggles I looked at Breeze’s bookings for the inaugural LAX service. RIC-LAX has just a handful of seats left, the LAX-RIC return flight is sold out! Nice job RIC. 

Checked the same this morning. Only 8 seats available going out to LAX and the return flight was sold out as you mentioned. This is a really great start for this route!!  Seems the focus will all be on Richmond today with this very busy Breeze flight day at RIC. 

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13 hours ago, eandslee said:

Tomorrow is a big day for the airport (RIC). Tomorrow starts new nonstop service to/from LAX, ISP, and JAX in Breeze!  This is in addition to the usual scheduled flights on Breeze to SFO, LAS, TPA, MSY, CHS, and PVD….all of these flights take place tomorrow!  Wowzas!

 

It is sooo cool to see FOUR west coast flights all happening this morning... WOW. Even a year ago I couldn't imagine that happening.

The LAX flight with Breeze appears to be 94% FULL which is AMAZING! jetBlue is probably wishing they kept their pandemic routes out of here. Man man...  plus 522 DEPARTUES in the next 7 DAYS.

image.png.6e5a36f4caf8f5aa3ee88c323dee79bd.png

Loving where were going guys!! I'll probably stop by the airport next week to get some plane-spotting in... anyone got good suggestions? Applebees has closed off the bottom portion for a while.. might try near the train tracks.

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25 minutes ago, Niccckk said:

It is sooo cool to see FOUR west coast flights all happening this morning... WOW. Even a year ago I couldn't imagine that happening.

The LAX flight with Breeze appears to be 94% FULL which is AMAZING! jetBlue is probably wishing they kept their pandemic routes out of here. Man man...  plus 522 DEPARTUES in the next 7 DAYS.

image.png.6e5a36f4caf8f5aa3ee88c323dee79bd.png

Loving where were going guys!! I'll probably stop by the airport next week to get some plane-spotting in... anyone got good suggestions? Applebees has closed off the bottom portion for a while.. might try near the train tracks.

Finding a good place to plane-spot is really tough at RIC (I’ve always advocated for a good observation deck).  Anyway, I’ve seen videos and folks take video off of E. Side Rd. To the northeast side of the airport (you just pull off to the side of the road)….seems to be a good location when RWYs 34/16; 16/34 are used.  The parking deck, top level is sometimes used too. Not sure there is anywhere inside the terminal you can get good videos.  Those are my suggestions. 

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1 hour ago, eandslee said:

Finding a good place to plane-spot is really tough at RIC (I’ve always advocated for a good observation deck).  Anyway, I’ve seen videos and folks take video off of E. Side Rd. To the northeast side of the airport (you just pull off to the side of the road)….seems to be a good location when RWYs 34/16; 16/34 are used.  The parking deck, top level is sometimes used too. Not sure there is anywhere inside the terminal you can get good videos.  Those are my suggestions. 

1 hour ago, Niccckk said:

It is sooo cool to see FOUR west coast flights all happening this morning... WOW. Even a year ago I couldn't imagine that happening.

The LAX flight with Breeze appears to be 94% FULL which is AMAZING! jetBlue is probably wishing they kept their pandemic routes out of here. Man man...  plus 522 DEPARTUES in the next 7 DAYS.

image.png.6e5a36f4caf8f5aa3ee88c323dee79bd.png

Loving where were going guys!! I'll probably stop by the airport next week to get some plane-spotting in... anyone got good suggestions? Applebees has closed off the bottom portion for a while.. might try near the train tracks.

I usually hangout at WaWa's to plane spot.

Edited by Shakman
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3 hours ago, eandslee said:

We’re up to about 74.5 flights (on average) a day right now. 

HOHHHH-LEEEEEEEEEEE WOWWWWWWW...

Our daily average has REALLY jumped up over the last two years (even absent the pandemic - we're well above where we were prior to the pandemic, no?)

When you think about it - the rate at which we're going, getting to that magical 100 flights per day is within reach in the next few years, methinks. Success to/from RIC this year will no doubt prompt the airlines to bring even more service, whether new destinations or a beefing up of flight frequency. I'm waiting now for when we can start seeing the 1x daily become 2x daily on certain routes. 

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