JetBlue is tossing a sharp salute this month to the men and women of the U.S. armed forces. Active-duty service members will be able to fly out of Richmond International Airport on JetBlue Airways for $1 this month. Men and women serving in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force or Coast Guard can book the $1 fares on flights from RIC—or Washington Dulles International Airport—for travel to any nonstop domestic destination between Friday and May 31.

Passenger traffic fell 13.3 percent at Richmond International Airport in March compared to the same month last year, but April could see improvement from recent double-digit declines, airport officials said. “We don’t have final numbers for April, but right now it is holding its own versus a year ago,“ airport spokesman Troy Bell said.

Fear of swine flu has begun to trickle down to some Virginians’ plans to travel to Mexico. “We’re getting some cancellations and . . . changes,“ said Dan Smith, co-owner of Richmond’s Crossroads Travel Advisors. Yesterday, the federal Centers for Disease Control—“out of an abundance of caution”—issued a travel advisory recommending that nonessential travel to Mexico be avoided.

Delta: 26.7 percent
US Airways: 24.8 percent
American: 10.4 percent
JetBlue: 10.1 percent
United: 9.5 percent
AirTran: 8.5 percent
Continental: 6.8 percent
Northwest: 3.4 percent
Air Canada: 0.3 percent

Travelers at Richmond International Airport will find it easier to get a snack and a drink with the installation of a food-and-beverage shop near the end of the airport’s longest boarding concourse. The 24-seat Samuel Adams Brewhouse mini-restaurant in RIC’s Concourse B should open by the middle of this month, said Steve Bass, regional director with the Delaware North airport concession company.

Air travelers landing at Richmond International Airport will go on a photographic-arts tour of America’s national parks, thanks to a new collaboration between the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Capital Region Airport Commission. “This Land is Our Land,“ an exhibition of 12 photographs by Virginia artist Hullihen Williams Moore, has gone on display at RIC and will be on view through June 15.

When the economy comes back, Richmond International Airport plans to be ready to handle the increase in air traffic. The Capital Region Airport Commission is planning more than $28 million of airfield improvements over the next two years at RIC. “We’re laying the groundwork for the anticipated growth that the airport will experience coming out of this recession,“ said Jon Mathiasen, the commission’s president and chief executive officer, “which we hope is sooner than later.“

The Capital Region Airport Commission is planning more than $28 million in improvements for airfield operations at Richmond International Airport

Jon Mathiasen has had to make some tough decisions in recent months. As the top executive at Richmond International Airport, he’s cut employment 10 percent to 13 percent, clamped down on overtime and restricted purchases.

Delta Air Lines will drop its nonstop flights between Richmond and New York’s LaGuardia Airport at the end of March. Delta has been providing four flights daily on that route, using 50-seat Canadair CRJ100 regional jets. The reduction will leave Richmond International Airport with 20 daily nonstops to the three New York metro-area airports.

A United Airlines regional flight from Chicago to Richmond landed at the Charlottesville Albemarle Regional Airport yesterday after reports of smoke in the cabin. United Express Flight 8066 was due to arrive at Richmond International Airport at about 2:30 p.m. but landed in Charlottesville around 2:10 p.m. The plane landed “routinely and safely,“ and none of the 26 passengers or four crew members on board was injured, United Airlines spokesman Jeff Kovick said.

Richmond International Airport is resisting the national trend of declining airline passengers—sort of. The airport’s passenger traffic was down in 2008, but not as far as at most U.S. airports. A total of 3,490,356 people used the airport.

Elisabeth Henderson looked in her purse and there was the box cutter. Henderson was on her way to Europe and she’d just inadvertently taken the metal utility knife through the federal Transportation Security Administration’s passenger-screening checkpoint at Richmond International Airport.

Despite bad weather and travel backups around the country, most flights are on time at Richmond International Airport this morning. Three departures are running late this morning—one US Airways flight to Boston and two US Airways flights to Philadelphia. All three are running about two hours behind. If you’re flying out of Richmond today, get the latest arrival and departure information at http://www.flyrichmond.com.

Passenger traffic is down at Richmond International Airport, but so are fares. “There are some really good prices,“ said Richmonder Holly Scott, a frequent business traveler. She’s planning a January trip to San Francisco and noted that American Airlines is offering a $189 one-way fare to the West Coast city. With prices like that, Scott said, “I’d fly out of Richmond.“