Virginia's Airports ( excluding Dulles & National ) (Norfolk, Richmond: live in, mall, airport)

[billybobwv]

Was there ever a time when one could had flown from either Norfolk or Richmond nonstop say to LA, San Francisco heck anywhere on the west coast for that matter? My cousin swears that back in the late 70's he flew Piedmont from Richmond to San Diego..nonstop. For some reason I don't recall of any airline that flew from either Richmond or Norfolk ( much less Roanoke ) all the way to the west coast nonstop.

Today checking out the wikipedia pages for the airports in Hampton Roads and Richmond, for their size there sure does for some reason lack a number of flights that are nonstop outside the eastern hubs and Texas and in Norfolk's case Las Vegas but I heard there were "issues" there. Why is that? Louisville for example one can fly non-stop to Denver and Phoenix but one cant do that say from Norfolk even though there really isn't much difference in population between the two. Even Manchester, NH offers a non-stop flight to Phoenix and that city is much smaller than say Richmond.

Hubs...was there ever an attempt at either Richmond or Norfolk's airport to be a hub for some airline? Interesting that such smaller airports like Syracuse and Dayton, Ohio..they were hubs at one time but never Richmond or Norfolk. Could it be that the airlines and perhaps even Virginia believe that many folks would rather drive to DC, Baltimore or the Carolinas to fly out of their airports than use one of their own?

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by billybobwv

Was there ever a time when one could had flown from either Norfolk or Richmond nonstop say to LA, San Francisco heck anywhere on the west coast for that matter? My cousin swears that back in the late 70's he flew Piedmont from Richmond to San Diego..nonstop. For some reason I don't recall of any airline that flew from either Richmond or Norfolk ( much less Roanoke ) all the way to the west coast nonstop.
?

Richmond USED TO BE a hub for the old Piedmont Airline (now part of US Air). At that time, there were non-stop flights out of Richmond to the west coast.

That is no longer the case. I am hard pressed to think of a major hub in a city as mall as Richmond.

[cathy J.]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

Richmond USED TO BE a hub for the old Piedmont Airline (now part of US Air). At that time, there were non-stop flights out of Richmond to the west coast.

That is no longer the case. I am hard pressed to think of a major hub in a city as mall as Richmond.

A long time ago an old classmate of mine had went to work for then WXEX Televison 8 and I can remember him telling me that there was a time back in the early 1980's when American Airlines was seriously considering Richmond as a hub only to end up putting their hub in Raleigh.
He never did tell me why American had a change of plans, maybe it was due to Piedmont. Who knows.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by jlawrence01

Richmond USED TO BE a hub for the old Piedmont Airline (now part of US Air). At that time, there were non-stop flights out of Richmond to the west coast.

That is no longer the case. I am hard pressed to think of a major hub in a city as mall as Richmond.

Upon further research, I have to admit that I am incorrect, Piedmont had hubs at both BWI and CLT which would preclude a need for a hub in Richmond.

[roanoker 4]

I remember the "pre hub" days. One could fly out of Roanoke in the 1970s' direct to Miami, Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Pittsburgh. Basically the planes orignated in major cities but made a stop in Roanoke en-route. I remember if one was traveling to L.A. they had to change at Chicago or Atlanta to another airline since Piedmont & Eastern were the only airlines serving the airport. None would ever drive to another airport just to catch a plane. The airfare then was based on either first class or coach class. The airlines were regulated by the government so they had to adhere to fares they filed with the government. Of course in the '70s travel was still mostly for those with money. De:regulation created the current set up of hubs today. The bottom line is that if you live in a smaller city you are paying more for your ticket just for someone who is flying out of a major city airport or "hub" which is cheaper. Is this system working? The end of this story is still unfolding!

[billybobwv]

Originally Posted by roanoker 4

The end of this story is still unfolding!

Today some airlines call their hubs "focus cities" but still its a hub or perhaps a smaller version of a hub.

Still I am a bit surprised that Southwest hasn't expanded more into Norfolk than they did. Plus I am still very surprised one can't fly to Phoenix, Denver and San Diego ( well both SD and Norfolk are "navy towns" ) non-stop from Norfolk since Southwest and even Frontier had been expanding to other cities in the east and midwest and some of those places are smaller than the Norfolk market. Guess they have their reasons.