Norfolk International Airport

[Former Resident of HR]

Norfolk already has a daily non-stop to Vegas with Southwest.

The Canadian demand is seasonal, May-Sept. As well, from my experience, many people here in Quebec prefer to drive down because it saves them money. My wife had about 3 people from her office come down last year, and all of them had families and all of them drove. Flying down and paying for a rental car is much more expensive than driving down in most cases.

I find it odd that we get so many Quebecois tourists down here. Out of curiosity, is there any reason that they prefer VA Beach over all the beaches they have to pass on the way down? Is VA Beach pretty well known there/have they advertised?

[metalman]

I took the non-stop flight to Vegas last summer. It was great. We were there in less than 4 hours. It was my first west coast flight. I was surprised at how quick it took.

It was amazing to see, going cross country, how much of American is uninhabited. Most of it was either farmland, forest, plains, or desert. A small fraction of what we flew over was suburb or city. That was my observation anyway.

Metalman

[vdogg]

You can book the tickets from norfolk at hoptoengland.com

Welcome to the forum.

[vbgirl]

Welcome to the forum.

Thanks!

I think it is interesting they come all the way here for our beaches. But, maybe we are jaded about how nice the beaches here are. They're clean and sort of "traditional" so maybe that appeals to people who have done florida too many times?

[scm]

I find it odd that we get so many Quebecois tourists down here. Out of curiosity, is there any reason that they prefer VA Beach over all the beaches they have to pass on the way down? Is VA Beach pretty well known there/have they advertised?

Friends in the VB hotel business say these are the first warm beaches on your way south. I have no idea if that is true, but was curious about the same issue. Also applied to all of the Mass. plates I saw here.

[Glassoul]

I find it odd that we get so many Quebecois tourists down here. Out of curiosity, is there any reason that they prefer VA Beach over all the beaches they have to pass on the way down? Is VA Beach pretty well known there/have they advertised?

Virginia Beach is about the furthest south you can reasonably drive in one day from Montreal/Quebec City with a family in tow (my personal best is 12h 45m, but that was doing 75-80mph most of the way with no kids and ONLY stoping to get gas). As well, thanks to some of the highest taxes in the developed world, French Canadians/Quebecoises have lower disposable incomes than most other Canadians. This renders more expensive destinations (ie Florida) which require an extra day driving or air travel not feasible for their yearly fun in the sun vacations. So for families, VA BCH is popular as much for cost as it is for its warm water beaches (as SCM points out). Most stay in hotels, but from just casual conversations with various people around here apparently camping is also quite a popular and inexpensive option. To sort of support that from another persective, single people or couples with no children will vacation in Cuba. Its is a very popular destination for them for the same reasons VA BCH is for families, its cheap. You can pay 2/3 the price for a week-long stay at a nice resort there than at some other more more developed/popular Carribean spots with medicore accomodations.

A more recent reason for the uptick in Canadian visitors of all language stripes is the increase in the value of the Canadian dollar relative to the US Dollar. About 4 years ago the exchange rate was ~ 0.65 USD = 1 CAD (which made me feel rich when I visited, haha...) Now, its about 0.86 USD = 1 CAD. That's about a 25% increase and the price has largely been witin that 0.83-0.88 for about a year now, so visiting the US becomes quite a bit cheaper for Canucks.

Virginia Beach used to be very proactive with its promotion in this market, especially in terms of developing a family friendly brand. I remember the first time I was visting Montreal and I had this surreal moment when I was watching a French language morning show and during the commerical breaks there would be these occasional TV ads for Virginia Beach. There was even one advertising the Beach as a 4 season destination (it showed the Christmas boardwalk drive thingy). I asked my wife (then girlfriend) about it and she said it was common to see ads for them in winter/early springtime, but she hasn't seen as much marketing here in the last 5-6 years as maybe there used to be (I'm not usually up early enough in the morning to verify this information... *cough*).

Edited January 22, 2007 by Glassoul

[Merrittk92]

Not the news we were looking for, but it really isn't all that bad either.

Number of air travelers decreases at Norfolk airport

from the Virginian Pilot

"About 3.7 million people flew in and out of the Norfolk airport in 2006 compared with 3.88 million in 2005. It's the airport's second negative year since 2000."

[okinawatyphoon]

Not the news we were looking for, but it really isn't all that bad either.

Number of air travelers decreases at Norfolk airport

from the Virginian Pilot

"About 3.7 million people flew in and out of the Norfolk airport in 2006 compared with 3.88 million in 2005. It's the airport's second negative year since 2000."

At least Southwest might be expanding here. And on the plus side, those flights to England start pretty soon!

Edited January 30, 2007 by okinawatyphoon

[vdogg]

We need to get airtran and jetblue to come down here.

[NorfolkerAtHeart]

Flying to Newport News is a bit of a pain, but I do it because Airtran has great service direct to LaGuardia. USAirways really can't compete with Airtran's Jet Service - USAirways flies those annoying and cramped prop planes to NYC and their prices are way more expensive. I wish Norfolk would get Airtran or JetBlue so i wouldn't have to drive the 45 minutes to Newport News from VaBeach when I come visit.

[vdogg]

Southwest to add daily flight between Norfolk-Chicago

[okinawatyphoon]

Southwest to add daily flight between Norfolk-Chicago

That's some good news. At least Southwest is dedicated to this market. We really need to hope that the flights to England are sucessful!

[Sky06]

Southwest to add daily flight between Norfolk-Chicago

I guess the Blackhawks and Ads owners won't be taking those flights.

[burt]

Here's an interesting piece about new shuttle service at ORF that was in today's Richmond Times Dispatch:

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satel...sPN=%21business

[lammius]

Here's an interesting piece about new shuttle service at ORF that was in today's Richmond Times Dispatch:

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satel...sPN=%21business

Using Crown Vics it's no wonder they have difficulty distinguishing themselves from cabs. If you Google image search "2007 Crown Victoria" this is one of the first images that pops up...

LOL

Are there many/any limousine services using the notorious black Lincoln Town Cars serving ORF?

[vdogg]

Bad news guys. I know we were all pushing for this but Nonstop flights from Norfolk to England won't fly

Plans for nonstop charter flights between Norfolk and Kent, England, proposed for this summer have been dropped, officials at Norfolk International Airport said today.

[rusthebuss]

This has alot to do with our lack of business base here. We need to push more jobs in the region that would justify flying between international countries.

[scm]

This has alot to do with our lack of business base here. We need to push more jobs in the region that would justify flying between international countries.

It has more to do with the fact that the service was to an airport in the middle of nowhere, once a week, at a price that was higher than than flying when you wanted, to London.

Ole' Pete needs to work on getting Jet Blue to fly here before chasing any more fantasies like this.

[okinawatyphoon]

Norfolk airport's master plan calls for a second runway

[Sky06]

This has alot to do with our lack of business base here. We need to push more jobs in the region that would justify flying between international countries.

Nonsense! There is no lack of big business here. And no lack of international visitors to Hampton Roads. We are the 2nd largest port on the East Coast, 2nd only to New York. The Propellor Club of the United States just had its annual convention here last year, bringing in hundreds of shipping agents and other martitime professionals from around the world. I know. I went to the Oyster Roast! We have NATO's NA headquarters here, tons of military and non-military conventions throughout the year, numerous international companies with NA headquarters (like Stihl, Maersk Sealand, etc.). We have many other US companies with large business bases, such as Northrop Grumman (20% of their workforce is right here), Lockheed, SAIC, USAA, BoA, and many many others. We have one of the largest railroads in the nation that brings in people from other countries for meetings. We are not Iowa. We are a large business destination, especially when it comes to overseas visitors.

So why is this not working? Most of these visitors go to other cities as well, like New York and Washington, and they choose to take flights and create agendas they are more familiar with. The problem here is that this takes time to build a client base for direct flights. It's not going to happen overnight. And obviously, it especially takes time when the destination on the other end is less busy than the major hub airports. And since this is the winter, fewer people are visiting for vacation.

Sure, more business can only help. But were well situated today already. This will happen eventually. It's just going to take more time.

[abak]

Unfortunately Norfolk is not a hub. Untill a major carrier decides to use us as one we will be forced to use other hubs. It is to bad Raleigh, Charlotte, DC and Philly already have hubs and have the facilities to support them. This is just another reason why we are the eastcoasts largest cul-de-sac.

[Sky06]

This has alot to do with our lack of business base here. We need to push more jobs in the region that would justify flying between international countries.

OK, I've chilled now.

Unfortunately Norfolk is not a hub. Untill a major carrier decides to use us as one we will be forced to use other hubs. It is to bad Raleigh, Charlotte, DC and Philly already have hubs and have the facilities to support them. This is just another reason why we are the eastcoasts largest cul-de-sac.

One of the major carriers was looking at us as a possible hub back in early 90's, but decided to go to Reagan National since we had no plans to build a 2nd runway. If as stated above, we do a build a 2nd, maybe someone will take another look.

Edited March 1, 2007 by Sky06

[Sky06]

Norfolk airport's master plan calls for a second runway

Contrary to usual practice on the web site, the vast majority support this. Wow!

[abak]

This seems to be our best option. Building a brand new megaport or rebuilding a closed Oceana would not be feasable with our current and near future demographics. 50 years from now maybe? ORF is a great regional airport will remain that way if they plan for the future now.

[okinawatyphoon]

One of the major carriers was looking at us as a possible hub back in early 90's, but decided to go to Reagan National since we had no plans to build a 2nd runway. If as stated above, we do a build a 2nd, maybe someone will take another look.

We can thank increased competition from Newport News for a lot of Norfolk's problems. Sure ticket prices might be cheaper, but think of all the people that go to Newport News. If they went to Norfolk instead, we would have the demand for another runway and for new air carriers.