How is the Richmond airport? (Cana: living in, price, military)

[goolsbyjazz]

Hi all! I have been researching your city and state as a possible place for relocation in the near future. I love the pics, history, culture, geography and the plain old beauty of the state. However, I am a little concerned with the airport.

I am used to living in cities with major airports. Because my job requires me to travel a bit living in a city with a major airport has been a great help. Obviously, the larger the airport the more flight options one has. My question to you all: Is the Richmond airport adequate for someone who travels a lot? Are flights more expensive in and out because it is a smaller airport?

This may not even be an issue, but I'd really like feedback from those of you who live there and rely on the airport for transportation. Thanks.

[DirtySouth]

Not To Bad, nor Not to good. Probably ranked 5 out of 10

[richmondpics]

It's a clean and modern airport, but it only has direct international flights to Canada. Dulles is 2 hours away. Southwest will be flying from Richmond which should improve access to the west, but for now it's typically a connecting flight in Atlanta, Chicago, or Houston.

[brocco]

if you want to fly to philadelphia, atlanta, or boston you're in luck. otherwise not so much

[VA Yankee]

You would do better to look online at cost to the areas you frequent out of Richmond.

[Charlesaf3]

Very low hassle small city airport, with classic pluses and minuses. I like it, but available flights match my current travel patterns

[goolsbyjazz]

Thanks for the responses. I will take the suggestion to price the flights in my current travel pattern from Richmond.

[Jim_Rockford]

Sucks having to fly all the way to atlanta to catch a plane to Chicago or detroit.. its wasting minutes of my life . **** flying . Never again.

I remember flying from Ky back to norfolk on a detachment, I got pulled out of line in uniform and searched , then they look at my MILITARY I.D. and she starts mouthing off to me that It doesn't look like me. Meanwhile My chief is standing right there and she won't even listen to him.. I told her ass to either charge me with something or get the **** out of my face, That was the last time I ever stepped foot on an airplane. I hope they all go out of business thanks to the government.
Nothing but cattle cars anyway.

[AJNEOA]

Originally Posted by Jim_Rockford

Sucks having to fly all the way to atlanta to catch a plane to Chicago or detroit.. its wasting minutes of my life . **** flying . Never again.

I remember flying from Ky back to norfolk on a detachment, I got pulled out of line in uniform and searched , then they look at my MILITARY I.D. and she starts mouthing off to me that It doesn't look like me. Meanwhile My chief is standing right there and she won't even listen to him.. I told her ass to either charge me with something or get the **** out of my face, That was the last time I ever stepped foot on an airplane. I hope they all go out of business thanks to the government.
Nothing but cattle cars anyway.

I couldn't agree with the above more. Connections make flying twice as bad, and flying all together just sucks, especially with the government's BS "security" or should I say "airport gestapo". Most of the airport gestapo go on power trips when they should really be doing something truly productive.

In any event, if you're flying to airports that are hubs frequently, then you'll get direct flights. Richmond's a spoke, so if you're flying to another spoke, prepare for frequent connections.

[Pruzhany]

Originally Posted by goolsbyjazz

Is the Richmond airport adequate for someone who travels a lot? Are flights more expensive in and out because it is a smaller airport?

RIC is more expensive to fly out of. But what you lose in cost, you gain back in time. Its an extremely easy airport to depart from and the TSA lines rarely take more than 15 minutes. If you are like me and don't check any luggage, on your arrival back you can be in your car within 10-15 minutes. As to travelling, it depends where to. Since Richmonders don't use this airport enough, we've lost many direct flights to major hubs and now and have to fly to larger hubs in order to get to major airports. Since I need to connect to international flights, I end up sitting somewhere for 3+ hours (usually ATL).

Use this link to chart your flights


Airline Seating Charts - Best Airplane Seats - SeatGuru

I used to drive up to Dulles to save some trip time, but now its not worth it since NOVA almost includes Frederickburg.