Courtesy: The DailyProgress

Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport Is Getting Its First Major Face Lift

http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet...ticle&cid=1128769180828&path=!news

I really don't see the point of this. There's no shortage of lobby space and "bringing checked bags to the TSA" takes all of about 7 feet of walking.

It doesn't really sound like they're adding any check in space, which means no room for a 5th airline to serve CHO.

In any event, the airport looks great! It's clean, comfy, free wireless. Seems like a waste of money to me.

Wow!

I’m excited for the little airport. I used to work there many years back.

Just a little history on this pearl of the south; the airport was constructed in 1951 and opened in 1954. The first commercial flight was a Piedmont DC-3 in 1955, that’s 50 years of commercial service!

The present terminal being used was finished in 1993/1994 with the main focus of having a second level with jet bridges for the F28s, MD 80s and 737s that US Air brought in. Shortly after wards in 1996 US Air downsized CHO removing the F28s from the fleet and mainline flights were withdrawn. The spend a good amount of money on that terminal as well something like 15-20 million.

Comair began upgrading flights with regional jets shortly there after starting with 1 CRJ a day and worked there way up until the EMB120s were removed from their fleet. A Dew Bridge was installed near Gate 3 & 4 for use with the CRJs.

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Photo © Stanislav Strokash

From what I remember seeing in their last master plan they are planning quite a bit of terminal expansion. The old south part of the airport, formally the terminal which is now being used as a fire house will at some point be fully demolished to make room for 2-3 more gates with regional jet bridges/Dew Bridges for UAX and USX as well as additional baggage carousels. With the demolishing of the tower and the firehouse it was planned to relocate to the other side of the runway where the USPS wanted to build another facility adjacent to the airfield in hopes of bringing more freight via air.


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Photo © Stanislav Strokash


The main ticket counter lobby was to be extended another 300 feet north to accom the new TSA housing I don’t know if this is still the plan. There was talk of further extending the 2nd story of terminal northward and adding additional region gates but I believe this has been dropped for the time being until an airline adds mainline service again.

Further plans from what I remember include centerline lighting for the runway and taxiways by 2007, extension of the runway up to 9000’ + additional overrun area. They are in hopes of adding a second runway by 2012 but I don’t know where they would put it and CHO def does not have the traffic to support parallel runways. Most needed is a second story parking deck as the parking lot often is over capacity especially during holiday travels.

The airport has been served by just about every legacy carriers affiliates. I have myself seen a wide varieties of commercial aircraft pass through. I’d like to share what I’ve seen there and please post if I’ve manage to leave something out.

UAX:
F27s, J31s, J41, CRJs, Dash-8s; SF340s
TW Express:
CASA 212,
New York Air Connection
Shorts Bros

Coex:
Beech 1900, EMB120

DL Conx:
CRJs, DO 328 Jet, EMB120 (Charter 727s, 737s, and the 757! That was the best!)

NWX:
SF340

USAir/Piedmont and affiliates at one time offered 6-7 mainline flights a day along with express flights into CHO. They have long been the dominate carrier in CHO:

DC-9s, 727s, 737s, MD-80s, F28s, Shorts Bros, Beech 1900, SF340

Anyone hear any good rumors about CHO flights? I heard there was talk of adding UAX RJ to ORD, but it’s been talked about for sometime. DLX (freedom) was suppose to add non-stop ERJ to MCO but cancelled it before it started, sucks for me as that’s where I live now.

Cheers to CHO and the expansion!

I forgot one!

American Eagle used to operate Metros into CHO at one point (80s), with drew service and then brought back service via RDU with J31s, anyone know if they ever brought larger aircraft into CHO?

Aparently AE used to operate Shorts bros aircraft in CHO as well.

Nifty!

I only flew out of CHO once, prior to moving out of C-ville. Definately a nice little airport.

Short of a little freshening up and doing some changes to handle any future expansions I doubt it really needs much else. Despite the population growth in central VA most people still will do the drive up to DC or down to Richmond to catch a plane.