Random and probably silly question but if you have a connecting flight that landed in terminal 1 but your next flight is out of terminal 2 how does that work?
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You have to go through security again. Walk through the middle through the parking structure or take any of the shuttles. No pass the security connector.
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That should be a dog-whistle that Raleigh should be a hub to some airline.
Well I think there a walkway connections both terminals now. Or at least that’s part of the 2040 plan.
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Can confirm. There’s a lot of neat history behind the RDU-LHR route!
I think a small hub for Alaska would work well. Sure, Alaska is almost entirely western-based but they have nearly nothing in their books that connects passengers to the Caribbean or South America. RDU could be that for them. I used a small portion of vision 2040 concepts and relocated the terminals and stuff, but this is how many aircraft you could fit if you chose to have an all internationals terminal. I did a version for just widebodies, just narrowbodies and a combination:
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This would also connect to T2 in some form and would become the big “OneWorld” alliance hub. Meaning, American, Alaska and whoever else (that is part of OneWorld, or a partner) could fly out of this terminal. A terminal this size might cost somewhere around $600M. A lot of the terminal would be customs, and with a mixture of passengers coming from Terminal 2 and passengers just coming from OneWorld, less check-in counters would actually be needed.
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That’s a really interesting idea to have an alliance hub vs a particular airline hub. One of the biggest pains in the butt when travelling on an alliance to me is having to change terminals when flying internationally. When I flew to Italy the other month, I flew into Spain on Iberia (airline sucks BTW) and had to walk a lot, go through immigration and security, take escalators down to the basement, take an airport train, and ascend another set of escalators into a new terminal and walk to the very end of it. I was literally the last person to board my “domestic” (within EU) flight, and that’s after running nearly everywhere.
If RDU could shorten that journey by having folks go through immigration and then funnel right back into the same terminal area after a dedicated security queue, it would be a gift to the traveller.
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I think it would be a wonderful idea. What could happen is- you get a jet bridge similar to those at major hub airports (picture 1) and place then at every gate. International arrivals would go a floor below the terminal where they’d go through screening and claim luggage. Below that floor would be the regular baggage claim and ground transportation and at the very top would be the main security, check-In and concourse access. To get from the plane to customs, you’d walk down the ramp, travel under the terminal to customs, then after customs and receiving your baggage, you’d have an option to either exit or go up an elevator/set of escalators to bring you into the main terminal for a connecting flight. You’d also have the option to transfer to terminal 2 from within terminal 3. In picture 2, I have kinda created a map for this. Red would be the lone passengers follow into customs, green would be the options after customs, and blue would be the point which passengers can transfer to terminal 2.
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Thanks for taking the time to think about how this works. QQ for you though…do you anticipate that this solution puts the connecting traveller back into the same security queue as the standard passenger arriving at RDU for a flight, or are you saying there’s a separate security screening for connecting passengers? I think that there needs to be a separate one for connecting passengers to prevent delays on international connections that could happen when the main security line is long.
In other US airports, I’ve been given a special “pass” from the airline that allows me to skip the line at the main security. Having those passes tells me that the industry realizes that this is a problem that needs resolution, and having a separate security for connections right after immigration and customs solves for it.
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I did a connection in Tokyo few years back and as I recall we when through passport check in international area and then passed into main terminal into the secured gate area. Would think that is way all airports should be.
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Being my connection was from 5pm to around 11am next day I took advantage of 3 day rule and extended my connection for 3 days to play tourist, so still went through screening when got back to airport.
An idea from the Business Expansion thread got me thinking
Would renaming the airport to “Raleigh/Durham International Airport” (slash instead of hyphen) help with marketing and showing that it is Raleigh and Durham, not Raleigh-Durham? Looking at a few other major airports with a similar name (according to the FAA):
Two-city named airports with hyphens
- Raleigh-Durham (RDU)
- Minneapolis-Saint Paul (MSP)
- Seattle-Tacoma (SEA)
Two-city named airports without hyphens
- Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW)
- Baltimore/Washington (BWI)
- Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood (FLL)
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In an internal memo, United sent out that they will be opening a TechOps base at RDU this fall, and have plans to make all existing RDU services mainline by Summer ‘23. Washington-Dulles and Newark will join Denver and San Francisco as mainline-only services in September! Houston and Chicago in Summer ‘23
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Is this good? I do not speak airplane.
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It’s good signs. Having a TechOps base means that they plan to have a presence significant enough at RDU to demand its own maintenance base, instead of having parts and crews shipped from its base in DC. Although, the base will not have a hanger initially. All mainline is also a good thing because it means there is more demand for the seats, more seats, more affordability, and it means we are a market United thinks will be better profitable for their aircraft. This is really big and is a great sign.
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You know I probably do over 30 flights a year and I don’t think I’ve even flown United.
RDU is recovery well too.
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am I correct in thinking United doesnt have a real hub/base in the southeast? Houston [nee Continental] & Chicago plus NYC & Dullas seem to their centers. That does leave room for a lot of growth at a place like RDU.
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A great reason why they would want to expand here, which proves the point being made. I hope we see a hub or focus city for United at RDU within the next couple of years
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I smell a possible Airport hub…
They may not be planning something massive, like their hubs in Denver and Chicago, but something like their route network at LAX. As pointed out, they don’t have any hubs in the southeast. Their largest entry point in the southeast in terms of seats & aircraft departures is Orlando, but Orlando has no additional gates available now, nor in the near future for United, unlike RDU. Orlando is building that new terminal, but all the gates have already been assigned to airlines, United receiving none. RDU on the other hand just opened 4 new gates at terminal 1 and additional slots are now available at terminal 2 because of that relocation and expansion at terminal 1, that will Increase further once/if airlines such as Frontier, Avelo, Allegiant, SunCountry relocate to terminal 1. RDU also has quick alternatives to expand terminal 1 by 12 more gates in less than 5 years, Orlando does not have this option.
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