RIC’s on-time arrivals rank among worst in the nation

Time to spare? Go by air.

Richmond International Airport ranked the 13th worst among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan-area airports for on-time airliner arrivals, according to a national study.

Almost a quarter of flights -- 24.7 percent -- arrived late at RIC during the 12 months ending in June and those delays averaged almost an hour.

According to the Brookings Institution, the average delayed flight touched down 58 minutes late at Richmond International.

The national average for on-time performance at airports in the nation's 100 largest metropolitan regions -- which handled 98.8 percent of U.S. travelers last year -- was 78.4 percent, the Brookings report said.

New York's regional airports led the country in delays: 33.7 percent of flights failed to land on time.

The best-performing airport was Salt Lake City, where only 14 percent of flights arrived late.

"Richmond [air traffic] is suffering from being routed through the most congested metropolitan areas in the country," said Brookings' Adie Tomer, a research analyst at the Washington-based think tank and one of the study's authors.

The Federal Aviation Administration counts a flight delayed if it lands 15 minutes late at its destination, is diverted to another airport or is canceled altogether.

A disproportionately large number of flights come to Richmond from some of the nation's busiest metropolitan hub airports -- New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C. -- and fly through the tight East Coast airspace to get here.

Weather and air traffic control tie-ups at the hubs and en route produce delays here, experts said.

Four of Richmond International's top markets are national leaders in disrupting flight schedules, the study said: New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Boston.

And nearly half -- 38 of 86 -- of RIC's daily flights are destined for three of the nation's top six most frequently delayed destinations, the Capital Region Airport Commission said.

"The root causes of most delays tagged to Richmond can usually be traced to problems originating elsewhere," airport spokesman Troy Bell said. "You don't see 'conga lines' of taxiing aircraft at RIC" waiting to takeoff.

But "delays originating elsewhere are inherited by RIC and become ours," Bell said.

RIC served 3.36 million passengers last year.

With more flights spread out over more markets than Richmond International's, the Hampton Roads airports -- Norfolk International and Newport News/Williamsburg International -- ranked 20th in arrival delays, while the big Northern Virginia airports -- Washington Dulles International and Reagan Washington National -- ranked 44th.

Given the congested markets area residents fly to and from, RIC's on-time performance is "not bad at all," said Virginia Commonwealth University transportation economist George Hoffer.

He also noted that the difference between Richmond's performance and that of metropolitan aviation hubs with better rankings was relatively small.

Richmond ranked 13th worst with a 75.3 percent on-time rate, while Oklahoma City -- a state capital similar to Richmond in size, employment rate and airline service -- was 45th, though its on-time arrival rate was only 3.7 percentage points better.

"Are the differences meaningful?" Hoffer asked.

Overall, airline delays are likely to grow, the Brookings report said.

The air traffic control system is ill-equipped to deal with the expected post-recession increase in air travel. The study recommended pushing new air traffic control technology to expand the national airspace system's capacity.

The Brookings report also proposed using high-speed rail improvements to reduce the need to make short -- less than 500 miles -- trips by air, and allowing major congested airports to charge airlines for landing at peak times.

Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or .