Tunnel Vision: Come Fly With Me

By Brendan O'Hallarn Wednesday, March 03, 2010

If they make their flights, my parents arrive today from North Bay, Ont.

They’re coming down for a few reasons. First and foremost they want to see their grandkids, who they say are “growing up too fast.” Also my mom has volunteered to help with the Kingsmill garage sale on Saturday, a task she describes as her raison d’etre.  My dad has caught the CAA basketball bug, so we’re going up to Richmond for quarter-final Saturday of the CAA Tournament.

Oh, and since they’re Canadians too, I’ll have someone to slap high-fives with about Sunday’s Olympic hockey win by Canada.

They’re flying into Richmond International Airport. I received a worried call from my dad on Monday night, wanting to make sure the logistics of the pickup will work. I told him not to worry. My wife’s going to pick them up, and if the kids go insane and keep that from happening, there’s a ground transportation company that will deliver my folks to our door for less than 50 bucks.

I’m taking some liberties with the commuting column this week, to make this point: Our airports work much, MUCH better than our roads in this area.

For one thing, there are three of them. Whenever I fly anywhere I check fares and flight times at Richmond, Newport News and Norfolk’s airports. There’s usually a flight that works just perfectly out of one of them.

They’re also easy to get to. Sure, you have to drive a little bit in one direction or another to get there from Williamsburg, but have you been to Denver? Denver International Airport might as well be in Kansas, it’s so far from downtown. La Guardia Airport in New York is a stone’s throw from downtown, but choking traffic means it’s a two-hour trip to get there from anywhere in Manhattan.

And my personal least favorite, Pearson International Airport in Toronto, is a complete nightmare to fly south from. One time we stayed at the hotel attached to the terminal and still missed our flight. Some guy from the airline came out and asked if anyone in line was on the first flight to Philadelphia. Two dozen hands went up. “Well, you all missed your flight,” he said, blandly. Not a fun day. I’m crossing my fingers that my parents actually make it out of Pearson today.

I haven’t once come close to missing a flight out of our local airports. The check-in lines are a fraction of the size of other airports’. Save for the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel if you’re flying out of Norfolk, there isn’t even much traffic to contend with.

And, having mentioned how cheap I am in this space, it positively delights me to park at any of the three airports in the area. Do you know how much long-term parking is at Newport News International Airport? Five dollars per day. Other than any foot-long sandwich from Subway (thanks, Olympic commercials) you can’t get anything for five bucks these days.

The one tangible drawback of the three local airports is none of them is a hub, so you can fly to fewer destinations from each, making a connecting flight more likely. In fact, Norfolk International Airport’s slogan (before the stupidly catchy Take ORF) used to be “Make the Connection.” I’m relatively new in public relations, but I’m pretty sure you don’t want to remind prospective passengers of the pitfalls of missed flights, lost luggage and other calamities that come from connecting flights.

I realize flying in 2010 is way more challenging than it was a decade ago. We’re all subjected to screening inconvenience, luggage fees and other annoyances. I’d just say that in this region, we get off pretty lucky.

There’s a local activist named Michael Ragsdale who has a blog called “Ideas for Hampton Roads Transit.” There’s some thoughtful stuff in there. But Michael’s most recent entry, “Transit (or lack thereof) to the Airport: How other cities do it, and what we should do,” struck me as a little alarmist.

Would it be nice to hop a bus to get to one of our three airports? Sure. But at five dollars a day for parking, I’m not sure I’d want to ride that bus, let alone build a fixed-rail link to any of the airports.

There’s a ton of things to complain about regarding our traffic infrastructure. Having to take a taxi to the airport, or drive your own car? Not a problem for me.

Brendan O’Hallarn writes Tunnel Vision for WYDaily. If you’d like to comment on anything he’s written, there’s a link attached to this column. Or you can email Brendan directly, at brendan@wydaily.com.