A tanker truck delivering 8,000 gallons of jet fuel overturned yesterday morning on Airport Drive within the Richmond International Airport property in Henrico County. The accident closed the main entrance to the airport and all lanes of Williamsburg Road between Lewis Road and Airport Drive for most of the day, according to Henrico police.

Richmond International Airport spent $4 million to accommodate special baggage-screening systems for the Transportation Security Administration. The TSA was supposed to reimburse the airport for 90 percent—$3.6 million—of the cost for modifying RIC’s baggage-handling areas for the explosive-detection systems. Five years after starting the project and two years after completing the work, the airport has yet to be repaid.

Passenger traffic was down slightly more than 2 percent for September at Richmond International Airport. And that’s OK, airport officials said yesterday. “I’m pleased about where we are in our boardings,“ said the airport’s president and CEO, Jon Mathiasen.

Here are the September market shares for airlines serving Richmond International Airport.*
  US Airways: 25.5 percent
  Delta: 23.5 percent
  American: 11.6 percent
  United: 10.6 percent
  AirTran: 9.0 percent
  JetBlue: 8.6 percent
  Continental: 7.7 percent
  Northwest: 2.9 percent

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.

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.

Richmond International Airport’s passenger traffic was down 3 percent in August compared with the same month a year ago. “August’s decrease was about half the decrease reported nationally,“ airport spokesman Troy Bell said. “We’re encouraged that we continue to outperform the domestic air system as a whole.“ The month’s traffic “underscores the resiliency of the demand for travel from RIC,“ Bell said.

Richmond International Airport will lose its only two daily nonstop flights to St. Louis next spring under changes American Airlines is making to its hub network. “We hate to lose access to any particular market,“ airport spokesman Troy Bell said. However, “when you consider the state of the airline industry and the economy,“ he said, “the reality is there are going to be route adjustments.“

Virginians may be settling in for fall instead of planning to travel for Labor Day. A little more than 1 million Virginians are expected to take a trip of 50 miles or longer over the weekend, a decrease of about 15 percent from last year, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic. But the expected dip in holiday travel may have more to do with the calendar than the economic recession.

Business travelers will be getting a new, more convenient spot at Richmond International Airport to work, hold private meetings, or make calls. The Capital Region Airport Commission is adding an additional business center across from the BB&T branch bank on the terminal’s upper level. The 680-square-foot center will offer business travelers work cubicles on a first-come, first-served basis and a pair of rooms to rent for small meetings.

Even though it experienced a year-to-year decline in passenger traffic, July was nonetheless Richmond International Airport’s best month so far in 2009. Total passenger traffic was down 1.8 percent versus July a year ago, the Capitol Region Airport Commission said yesterday. RIC served 308,984 passengers last month, compared with 314,521 in July 2008.

A comedian spending a month on an airliner lands at Richmond International Airport. A famous Indy car driver pulls into Richmond International Raceway. Put ‘em together and it’ll be a natural for marketing.

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.

Delta: 24.00 percent
  US Airways: 23.93 percent
  United: 10.67 percent
  JetBlue: 10.40 percent
  American: 9.83 percent
  AirTran: 9.65 percent
  Continental: 7.30 percent
  Northwest: 3.53 percent
  Air Canada: 0.34 percent

Richmond International Airport saw a relatively small decrease in its passenger traffic in April compared with the same month a year ago. “It’s a big improvement over what we’ve seen for the last three months,“ airport spokesman Troy Bell said yesterday. The number of air travelers using the airport fell 2.6 percent in April, according to the Capital Region Airport Commission. April’s passengers were 278,883, compared with 286,213 in April 2008.