Followups
An update on companies and trends featured in recent issues

Virginia Business
September 2005

Ridership at Richmond International Airport rose to 256,416 passengers in June, an 11.7 percent increase from the same month last year. The June figure was a monthly record for the airport. Airport officials attribute the higher passenger volume to a recent decline in air fares. Delta Air Lines restructured its fares late last year, and all carriers began lowering prices after discount airline Air Tran announced that it would begin serving Richmond in June. The efforts of several Virginia airports to drive down air fares were detailed in the February issue.

Congress has approved $142 million for the widening of Interstate 81. That amount, plus $166 million from the state, gives Star Solutions, a group of construction companies, nearly $300 million for the project. The amount of government funding could affect tolls that Star Solutions plans to charge truckers using I-81. A story in August’s Around the Old Dominion section discussed growing opposition to the proposed tolls by 150 Virginia companies and industry groups.

Chaparral Steel, which has operated a plant in Dinwiddie County since 1999, has been spun off by its former parent company, Dallas-based Texas Industries Inc. Chaparral is the nation’s second largest producer of structural steel products, with revenue of about $1.1 billion. Virginia’s steel industry was the subject of a story in the April issue.

The Atlantic Menhaden Management Board has approved plans to restrict Omega Protein to a harvest of 106,000 metric tons of fish a year from the Chesapeake Bay. Omega had a proposed a 131,000-metric-ton cap. The Virginia General Assembly must approve the cap for it to take effect. Omega processes menhaden into fish meal and oil, a source of healthful Omega-3 compounds. The magazine’s November 2004 issue discussed the revival of the menhaden industry.