Late Arrivals

News regarding on-time arrivals at Richmond International Airport dismays but does not surprise. The data also corresponds to the experience of this office's Phileas Fogg.

The Times-Dispatch's Peter Bacqué reports that according to the Brookings Institution, RIC "ranked the 13th worst among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan-area airports for on-time airliner arrivals." The ranking may represent inconvenience for passengers traveling to Richmond, but it does not translate into a bad grade for the airport. The on-time problems originate elsewhere -- principally at the crowded hubs through which most flights to and from Richmond pass. A flight that leaves JFK late, for instance, seldom will arrive at RIC on time.

Personal observation suggests the problems worsen as the day proceeds. Flights from New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte, and other hubs stack up and back up throughout the day. We prefer early morning flights, which utilize planes that touched down the night before. Our departures from Richmond usually go without a hitch (not always, alas). We have enjoyed a string of flights that left Richmond on time or within a few minutes of scheduled departure and that arrived when advertised. That same string, however, has seen every return flight with delays -- sometimes significant ones. And that means we are more familiar with certain airport amenities than we are prepared in this space to confess -- if you get our drift.