I didn’t know how much I had it made when Midway was here!
1 Like
Flying Midway weekly in the late 90s/early 2000s is what allowed me to reach a million miles on AAdvantage.
2 Likes
RDU/EPA is getting ready to take Public Scoping comments on the relocation of the primary runway. From the presentation, they will be keeping it around the same length, 10,000 ft., and not extending it to 11,500 ft as was in the original 2040 plan. Though I think I remember hearing about the change previously.
4 Likes
That change happened before the pandemic, right? If I remember right, RDU did this because they realized they were growing faster than they expected, and didn’t have the money to immediately fund that length extension. That should’ve been one of the reasons why we never went far with recruiting flights from China/Japan/India.
By the way, this RTA presentation by a Wall Street Journal travel columnist doesn’t expect travel to fully reach pre-pandemic levels by 2024. Even then, who will be flying is expected to be pretty different from who often flew in the Before Times.
Interesting fact from that slide deck: they need enough water to flood the Red Hat Amphitheater by 160 feet (150 million gallons) and up to two PNC Arenas of soil, filled to the brim (75 million cubic yards). That should show you why these sorts of projects still have legit reasons to go through an Environmental Assessments (and we’re lucky we don’t have to do a costly and complicated Environmental Impact Statement).
And for people who don’t do project management for a living:
This means this public comment period will decide what the runway relocation study will and won’t think about. If you wanna push RDU to make the runway Asia-ready in the future, this is the time to tell them.
The runway change happened after the pandemic started and the number of flights tanked. They realized that they were not going to be able to afford the longer runway and the longer runway was mainly to try to get a flight to china. Which is not going to happen in the near future.
1 Like
Oh whoops. You’re right; thanks for the correction. 
I was thinking it was prior to the pandemic too!
I know money is a real concern. In a perfect world I wish they could build it. One for future proofing. Better to do it now before we really need it then to scramble latter. I assume extending it would restict usage times, unless all the work is done at night. But since the pandemic occured, who knows how long it will be until there is enough business demand again to entertain a trans Pacific flight. On another note, CLTs longest runway is only 10k feet. So we’d have them beat there. 
1 Like
If I remember correctly, the approval process for the longer runway was going to take longer also. I guess they needed to do more environmental studies than for the shorter runway. So, they are saving time and money.
I recall that after cut back to 10k, said the new runway will be designed so that will be easy to add the 1500 extra feet in future.
1 Like
Funny story… TBJ just reported that RDU ended up with $11.7M more in revenue than they expected.
3 Likes
September numbers were 8% better than expected. Plus, a few lines are making their return soon.
“A total of 802,000 passengers flew through RDU in September 2021, 8% more than officials forecasted. For context, that figure outpaced last month’s national recovery”
11 Likes
Also, RDU’s board approved incentives for international flights!
This means airlines could get certain fees at the airport waived plus $25,000 for promotions if they add new non-American destinations over 1,611 miles away that were not served prior to the pandemic. This means a new service to Mexico City could be eligible, for example, but not a second flight to Paris or London.
The airport will spend up to $500k a year for 2yrs on this initiative, and will use additional revenue from the new flights including passenger fees to pay for it.
Take a look at the N&O article if you want to learn more.
11 Likes
Hope it works. Nashville and Austin already have London service back online but not RDU.
1 Like
In other RDU news: it turns out RDU actually has the authority to levy taxes in Wake and Durham counties since the 80s, but they just never invoked it. But they’re thinking about changing that now to make up for lost revenue and to update infrastructure (like a new runway or parking facility).
That TBJ article mentions RDU’s special tax district, but it sounds more like they just want to issue more bonds and the taxing power is what allows that to happen. Am I reading that correctly? I figured that’s the case sine it doesn’t look like anyone is being directly taxed, unlike the transit sales taxes (but I can’t be sure because the YouTube links on the airport authority’s board meeting agenda are dead)
RDU could make good money by up-fitting the central parking deck with an array of hotels and charged a high occupation tax. It’s very convenient to reach your early morning flight if you’re just a 5 minute walk away.
3 Likes
I’d pay an extra 10 bucks if they can get my back to me in 10 min or less not the standard 30 min. Pathetic!
The Crazy thing is RDU use to have motels within walking distance right there on the property.
3 Likes
Ouch Paris flight isn’t coming back until August 2022 while similarly tiered cities are starting to get there Europe service back this year.
It’s like Raleigh isn’t a priority to anyone. What the heck did we do wrong?
2 Likes
I don’t think you’ll find anyone following the narrative that Raleigh has done much wrong. If you dig enough, you’ll find room for improvement but Raleigh is doing most things right. I, for one, am not going to let a flight be the barometer of Raleigh doing things right or wrong.
16 Likes