GoCHO – Charlottesville Airport Getting More Flights?

A lot of my clients ask about the Charlottesville – Albemarle airport. How many flights? How frequent are flights? Is it a good airport? How is parking? IThey may be getting good news. Would you fly out of Charlottesville or go to Dulles (archived: 2025) ? (I typically fly out of Richmond RIC)

Our five-gate airport is about to get more useful (archived: 2010) … **

Update 15 May 2010: Make sure you read Barbara Hutchinson’s, CHO’s CEO, comment about the hopeful increases in flights, including timelines. Also, Dean J’s reference to CHO as a “boutique airport” made me smile.

Thanks to the merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines (archived: 2010), Charlottesville may be getting more flights. Assuming the merger gets Washington’s approval (archived: 2010), that is.

Namely to (archived: 2010) these locations:

• CLE Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport @ Cleveland, OH
• EWR Newark Liberty International Airport @ Newark, NJ
• IAH George Bush Intercontinental/Houston Airport @ Houston, TX
• ORD Chicago O’Hare International Airport @ Chicago, IL

Combine more flights with a longer runway (archived: 2011), and

Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport will expand its runway by 800 feet with initial Phase 1A a $6 million dollar project funded in part by the Virginia Aviation Board and the Airport Authority. The runway extension will allow us to accommodate more fully-booked flights in varying weather conditions, improving service to travelers and the airlins we serve. When the extension is complete, more flights can be fully booked and depart from and land at CHO; this means more options for travel to and from CHO and more seats on flights mean lower fares for those flying from CHO. Results of a study of the extension plans completed in January 2008 found that there will be no significant environmental impact from the Airport construction.

I’ll put this in the category of “good for the Charlottesville economy”. The key is going to be how many extra flights.

A viable airport is a reason that businesses – DIA included – see the Charlottesville/Albemarle region as being a good place to relocate to.* This can only help.Why is a longer runway needed (archived: 2010)?

Work on an 800-foot extension to the runway is underway. It is needed because of the area’s heat and high humidity levels in the summer. With air carriers moving to regional jets, those engines require more room to take off.

“On those days the regional jet can’t operate at full capacity,” Hutchinson explained. “As a result, at least 10 passengers on every 50 seat jet might have to be asked to disembark.”

The airport is also using the extension project to lure more air carriers. NBC29 has learned that CHO is in negotiations with three air carriers which could provide service to Chicago and Florida; one of the three prospects is being touted as a “low-fare” carrier.

*I apologize for the terribly constructed sentence. I’m a little bit ashamed by it.

** Thanks to the reader for pointing this out.

If you’re looking for homes in Charlottesville near the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport, these are a few: