As someone who travels a lot, Richmond is actually a nice and clean regional airport. Most people that fly into Richmond are just going to the Richmond area, or maybe Charlottesville.

I haven't flown into Norfolk, but maybe ask some people about that airport, maybe that's shittier so would lend better to the story of it being a bad experience?

Alternatively, the airports in DC are terrible IMO. Parking is expensive, takes forever to get through security, bags take forever. So I might use one of those airports instead of RIC as the location. Washington DC is about 90 minutes to Richmond and Norfolk is about the same so if I can't get a good flight out of Richmond (often when I fly to the west Coast, it's cheaper overall to fly out of one of the DC airports) and they have nonstop flights. 🤷

Good luck on the book, would love to read it when it's completed.