Even with recent route reductions by the hard-pressed airline industry—socked by soaring prices for jet fuel—RIC appears to be holding its own. “I suspect we’ll do better than most airports,” Bell said. His assessment came as the nation’s airline industry reported deep losses this year and, as a result, began to lay off workers and cut back on destinations. RIC experienced the loss of one fairly small route to Columbus, Ohio, after Skybus Airlines went out of business.

But RIC otherwise saw few other signs of the industry’s cutbacks, a credit, Bell said, to the core strength of Virginia’s capital region. “The business travel market in the region has density and strength,” he said, comprising about 55 percent of those 3.6 million annual travelers. The leisure market makes up the other 45 percent—a portion of the air travel market that has risen at RIC from years past because of lower fares.

With all that activity, the airport com- mission has approved construction of a $41 million dollar parking garage, which will create a total of more than 10,000 parking spaces when completed.

Also under way is construction of two “flyover” entry and exit roads, set for completion this October. The road separation should create a safer, less stressful drive for motorists arriving at the airport off I-64. The road project will end the dangerous cross - over with traffic from Charles City Road using Airport Drive—making it easier for travelers and for the many trucks and vans that cut across the airport grounds.

The steady drumbeat of work is music to the ears of Beverley “Booty” Armstrong, chairman of the airport commission, and one of the prime movers in RIC’s renaissance. “When I first went on the airport commis- sion about 10 years ago,” said Armstrong, “I thought the airport was substandard relative to other airports, and a drag on economic development for the community.”

Armstrong cited three major deficiencies in the 1990s airport: its facilities, its destinations, and its fare structure. Working with the business community,” he said, “we worked very hard to get AirTran.” This was followed by JetBlue, whose interest in RIC was pure serendipity.

When Mark Warner was Virginia’s governor, he was supposed to meet with JetBlue’s founder and then-chairman, David Neeleman, in New York. When Neeleman missed the appointment, he was so mortified that he later visited Warner in Virginia’s capital to make amends.

When Neeleman saw how Richmond International was thriving, he realized it fit JetBlue’s city profile: RIC was underserved, with high fares, and outside a major population center in Washington, D.C. “So we ended up with two carriers” that served the top two markets for Richmond, Armstrong said.

Another plus for RIC has been carriers’ expanded use of smaller jets that allow them to serve mid-sized airports. “Now we have improved access and competitive fares nearly everywhere, not just where the low-fare carriers fly,” Armstrong said.

With the surging passenger volume, Armstrong said, comes the need for more parking. “I decided a long time ago to keep ahead of the curve because I’ve seen cities that got behind and it was almost impossible to catch up,” he said.

“Frankly, we have pre-built parking decks ever since. Every time we build one, it fills up right away. The objective in parking is to stay ahead of problems, and not fall behind.”

Asked to look ahead over the next 20 years, Armstrong said, “I think we’ll probably grow faster than the industry because we’ve set the foundation for growth. The megalopolis down I-95 is going to get much more occupied. So Richmond, in terms of the market draw for the airport, will exceed the rest of the industry for that reason.”

For now, RIC “is a first-class facility that can compete with any city in the country".