May traffic feeds optimism at RIC

Richmond International Airport's prospects could be looking up.

After more than a year of slumping traffic, the recession-driven decline in air travelers using RIC looks like it's finally flattening out.

Though not prepared to say good times are here again, "at present it appears that the traffic downturn has leveled off," airport spokesman Troy Bell said yesterday.

The airport's May passenger traffic decreased 7.4 percent compared with the same period a year ago, according to Capital Region Airport Commission figures.

RIC's May passenger traffic was 292,918, compared with 316,512 in May 2008, the commission reported.

"Looking forward," Bell said, "various indicators suggest that June'09 should come in with slightly better results than . . . we're presenting for May."

The airport's traffic began to fall in April 2008, hitting a 13.3 percent decrease in March 2009 compared with March a year ago.

Richmond's slump came on the heels of 34 months of record passenger growth. RIC, in eastern Henrico County, served 3.5 million passengers in 2008.

Richmond International's May traffic held up better than the nation's as a whole.

The number of passengers traveling on U.S. airlines fell 9.5 percent in May, according to the Air Transport Association of America, the industry trade organization for the major U.S. airlines.

The May results reflected weak demand and the impact of the H1N1 influenza outbreak, the association said.

Reflecting RIC's decline in passengers, the nine airlines serving Richmond International will reduce the number of seats available locally by 4.6 percent in July and 10.5 percent in August compared with the same months a year ago.

But, Bell said, "there's still an excess of seats in the market to accommodate travel demand."

Cutting seat capacity is one way airlines have tried -- largely unsuccessfully -- to increase their profits during the recession.

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