Nonstop flights to Cancún started taking off from Norfolk International Airport last month. Now, regional leaders have their hearts set on Europe.
Board members of the Hampton Roads Alliance — which includes representatives from the private sector and mayors of the region’s cities — voted Tuesday to establish the Hampton Roads Transatlantic Air Service Coalition.
Like the alliance, the coalition will include business leaders and localities from across the region. Its goal is to put together a fund to show European airlines Hampton Roads is committed to the success of transatlantic service, airport spokesperson Chris Jones said.
Jones said the fund is like an insurance policy to offset risk to the airlines.
“Going into a new destination for an airline is literally a multi-million dollar, in some cases, hundreds of millions of dollars, investment into a community,” Jones said. “And when you're making that type of commitment, they want to have some assurances.
The funds won’t automatically be paid to the airline, but will be there to make up the difference if the airline falls short of its revenue goals in the first year or two, he said. No money has been collected yet, Jones added.
The Federal Aviation Administration prohibits the airport from running the fund. The Hampton Roads Alliance and Executive Roundtable, two regional economic growth and development organizations, will manage it.
The push to form the coalition hit a roadblock last month when no one from Norfolk showed up for the vote. But Jones said everything fell into place just in time.
“We have a once-a-year opportunity to sit down with multiple airlines and talk about air service,” he said.
This year, that opportunity is in Brazil at the Routes Americas Conference in March. Jones said he’s going to talk to European carriers and ask them to consider launching direct flights from Norfolk. He compared the experience to “speed dating.”
“You sit down and over the course of two or three days, you might meet with a dozen or so airlines and talk about your destination and why your destination makes sense for an airline to fly there,” he said.
Having the coalition in place gives Norfolk a competitive edge as other airports, including Richmond International, vie for the same service, Jones said.
Norfolk International Airport has hit a few milestones in the last few years. It started nonstop service to Mexico in January, which is its first international flight in decades, and unveiled its new customs facility Wednesday. Last year was the airport’s busiest ever, serving nearly 5 million passengers.
Jones estimated that 70 people a day travel from Norfolk to a final European destination. London is the most popular but it’s not a realistic nonstop destination for Norfolk at this time, he said, citing London airport’s limited runway space.
“Our hope is that we can work with a European carrier that can fly directly from Norfolk to its hub and that its hub city has a strong network across Europe from there,” he said, pointing to Reykjavik in Iceland and Dublin in Ireland as examples of well-connected hub cities.
Doug Smith, president of the alliance, said securing a transatlantic flight to and from Norfolk would be a boon for the local economy.
“Economic development is very much about connectivity,” he said, noting successes in deepening the port, building the new HRBT and internet connection. “Connecting by air is just as important.”
As the region tries to grow in areas where it has an advantage — such as defense, energy, aerospace and logistics — companies and investors will likely come from Europe, Smith said.
And they’ll need an easy way to get here.