The airport is working on projects that’ll be both highly visible to passengers and behind-the-scenes. (Courtesy SkyShots Photography)
This week the governing body of Richmond International Airport moved forward a pair of projects that’ll significantly change its main terminal.
On Tuesday, the Capital Region Airport Commission approved design-related contracts for its new consolidated security checkpoint and rental car connector.
The vote means a team led by architecture firm Gresham Smith is now officially in charge of designing RIC’s new $250 million security checkpoint, which would combine its two existing Transportation Security Administration checkpoints into a single checkpoint with up to 14 lanes, up from the current eight total lanes.
The 150,000+-square-foot area would also add a second level to the airport’s main atrium and have room for a lounge, concession areas and administrative offices.
The contract gives the Gresham Smith team $13.4 million for the design work, which it would handle along with local firms 3North, KEi Architects, CMTA and Kimley-Horn. The group first won an RFP for the project’s design over the summer and needed Tuesday’s CRAC vote to formalize the agreement.
Next the commission must award a construction contract for the checkpoint. Airport officials recently said they’ve made a shortlist of interested contractors to build it. It’s unclear when construction would begin.
A rendering of the planned consolidated security checkpoint. (Courtesy RIC)
The airport has, however, found a contractor to handle the rental car connector.
CRAC also voted Tuesday to award a $20.6 million construction contract to Norfolk-based Tazewell Contracting for that project, which will create a two-level indoor walkway to connect the terminal to the rental car parking garage.
The 30,000-square-foot project would provide an indoor walkway between the areas and provide space for the rental car companies’ counters, which currently are on the lower level of the airport terminal. Construction of the connector is expected to begin in the next few months.
CRAC also kicked off preliminary planning for another project that’s much more behind-the-scenes at the airport.
A rendering of the rental car connector.
The commission this week approved a resolution related to future fuel infrastructure and fixed-base operator (FBO) services at the airport.
The new program will allow a recently created Special Fuel Systems Committee to begin planning for the airport’s future fuel and FBO needs. FBOs are third-party companies that handle things like refueling, de-icing, belt loading and maintenance for airlines at the airport. There are two long-running FBOs at RIC: Richmond Jet Center and Million Air.
In 2024, the airport proposed to bring FBO services at RIC in-house, a change that would have devastated the RJC and Million Air businesses. But that effort never materialized and both RJC and Million Air extended their leases at RIC until 2031.
The now-approved resolution notes that the airport intends to issue an RFP for “the future operation, management, and development of fuel infrastructure,” and that while the fuel infrastructure matter is separate to that of the FBOs, “they involve issues that are considerably intertwined and require simultaneous research, fact-gathering and study.”
The airport is now preparing to study what exactly those fuel infrastructure and FBO needs may be. CRAC chairman Charles Macfarlane said the Special Fuel Systems Committee will talk to stakeholders including Million Air and RJC, commercial airlines, airport staff and counsel and companies that ship cargo through RIC. He added that it’s strictly a fact-finding effort that won’t make any binding decisions regarding FBOs and fuel infrastructure at the airport, and that it’ll report its findings to the commission in June 2027.
High fuel prices do seem to be impacting enplanements at RIC, as at Tuesday’s meeting RIC’s Director of Air Service Development Troy Bell presented the commission with the latest air traffic report.
In September, about 397,000 passengers traveled through RIC. While that’s the second-busiest September the airport’s ever seen, it’s down 1.3% from last September.
Bell noted jet fuel costs have more than doubled in that time, from around $2.27 per gallon last year to $4.68 per gallon in 2026. He described that as a “huge jump year-over-year,” and that fuel costs have a direct correlation to air carriers’ scheduling and risk aversion.
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