Richmond International Airport - History

History

The airport was dedicated as Richard Evelyn Byrd Flying Field in 1927 in honor of aviator Richard E. Byrd, brother of Governor of Virginia Harry F. Byrd. Charles Lindbergh attended the dedication ceremony. Although the facility was in Henrico County, Richmond Mayor John Fulmer Bright was instrumental in the creation of Byrd Field, which was initially owned by the City of Richmond.

The current president and CEO of Richmond International is Jon Mathiasen. It is owned and operated by the Capital Region Airport Commission, a state-created governmental agency overseen by representatives of Chesterfield, Hanover, and Henrico Counties and the City of Richmond.

A new terminal building designed by Marcellus Wright and Son was completed in 1950. It was expanded in 1968, which included the current passenger concourses.

The April 1957 Official Airline Guide shows 43 weekday departures: 22 Eastern, 10 Piedmont, 5 American, 4 National and 2 Capital.

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