RICHMOND — With the number of passengers gaining altitude in recent years, Richmond International Airport (RIC) is unrolling several infrastructure and cosmetic upgrades to keep the momentum going. It’s also planning to add to its international flight offerings with a direct-to-Europe route in the works.
Over 456,000 passengers traveled through RIC in June, according to a Capital Region Airport Commission presentation on Tuesday. That’s a new record for the airport and represents a steady climb of customers in recent years.
Troy Bell, RIC director of marketing, said that almost 500,000 people travel between the Richmond region and European destinations each year, but not all of them depart from RIC. Some use it as a connection to larger airports that have direct flights.
“Unfortunately about three out of four travelers elect to fly from airports other than RIC,” he said. “In aviation, this is referred to as ‘leakage.’”
But those customers, who often end up flying out of Northern Virginia’s Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C., might have easier access if RIC locks down a direct flight.
“We have a strong business case for a European route for our current passengers and what we’re leaking to Dulles,” RIC chief growth officer Martin Rubinstein said at a retreat last week, reported by Henrico Citizen. “We have more than enough to convince airlines that there are enough passengers coming out of this airport to go to Europe.”
Meanwhile, Bell told the Mercury that Europe has been in consideration for years. But the prospect is more feasible now due to “increasing local interest with area businesses, economic development boosters and local jurisdictions at a time when smaller aircraft have become more capable and funding examples more commonplace.”
For instance, earlier this year, RIC announced a direct-to-Bermuda flight that jets passengers to the Caribbean island in a little over two hours. It’s the first direct international flight option the airport has had in a decade, Axios reported.
There are 10 passenger airlines and four dedicated cargo carriers that offer domestic service from RIC, and Frontier Airlines also recently announced nonstop service to Atlanta and Denver starting this October.
Aside from new flight options, the airport has infrastructure and aesthetic upgrades in the works, like overhauling its dining options, renovating bathrooms, adding energy-efficient lighting in parking garages and redesigning its core plaza to include a dogwood sculpture, a nod to the snowy blooms of the state’s official tree.
The upgrades are part of the airport’s $119.5 million Capital Improvement Program, which also includes consolidating the airport’s security screening checkpoint.
Local eateries like Hardywood Park Craft Brewery and Beet Box are two of the vendors that will whip up cuisines in the airport. The airport put out requests for proposals last year, and Bell said that the winning vendors end up bearing “the bulk of the capital costs” it takes to set up shop.
While most large capital projects combine local airport, state and federal funding — like a new aircraft rescue and firefighting station the Commission approved a bid for on Tuesday — Bell said RIC tends to reinvest much of its revenue back into infrastructure projects to “keep pace” with needs.
Bell said the airport forecasts a 1% to 3% increase per year in travellers, but big developments like population growth or new employers in the area can lead to “timeline-altering jumps.”
Virginia has continued its efforts to promote the commonwealth and encourage business by maintaining the Governor’s New Airline Service Incentive Fund, a non-reverting cash reserve, to support airlines serving all levels of airports in the commonwealth including RIC, Norfolk International and Charlottesville-Albemarle airports.
Passenger travel has steadily increased since hitting a low of 405 million during the pandemic, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Last year, the total number of air passengers traveling in and out of the U.S. eclipsed previous totals with over 1 billion. A total of 251 million people have traveled thus far, with more travelers expected for Thanksgiving and Christmas later this year.
Still, RIC has a milestone it hopes to hit — five million passengers in a calendar or fiscal year.
“We’ve been close, hovering around 4.8 to 4.9 million recently,” Bell said.
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