United isn’t opening a base here but Breeze might be. They said they may or may not express options for it. They see up to 15 routes they could add from RDU by end of 2023 which would be HUGE. Most, if not all, would be new. Also, RDU needs to hurry international expansion. Dulles only has 24M passengers a year yet has around 30 destinations across Europe & Asia. It’s also worth noting that AA doesn’t see a need for LAX-Asia flights but has instead been adding new flights to Asia out of Seattle. I think it wouldn’t be completely out of the question if AA adds another transoceanic flight.
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Dulles is also the main international airport for the nation’s capital, so they would also be influenced by the various embassies there, on top of the city already being home to major industries. While I would love a direct TP flight, I don’t think it will ever really happen. Our best bet would probably be a Middle Eastern connection point like Dubai or Istanbul.
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Yep Embassy stuff. Scored a cheap flight to Egypt via Saudi Arabia from Dulles. Guess they need to fill seats somehow.
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I think Abu Dhabi would work well. Etihad has an influx of aircraft coming in but little usage for them. They also have US pre-clearance so it could come in at any time of day.
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I thought they were hmm must’ve change there mind. Oh wait it’s a maintenance hub.
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It appears it might just be maintenance. UA recently announced 2 crew bases in LAS & MCO
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Are there really rumors of Aer Lingus? Qatar or Emirates would make a lot of sense too.
They confirmed they were in talks a month before announcing Icelandair
It’s very likely we get Dublin at some point, especially with that new airline saying how they’ve taken an interest in flying to RDU in the future
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Where did you hear about FedEx wanting a center here?
RDU needs to hurry international expansion
Landside expansion at Terminal 2 is actively in design. T2 houses all RDU’s international service, and is constrained by gates, customs and other facilities. It’s been fun to observe both our recent international growth (up to seven destinations now, including three transatlantics), as well as success (Icelandair’s season extensions, Delta upgauging CDG aircraft).
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It was a long time ago but NIMBYs complained of course and stopped it. But with Avelo I have hope.
That went to PTI 20 years ago
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Yes it did, so those NIMBYs won. Ahh but at that time we had Midway as a hub and before American so they didn’t complain about that.
It’s amazing seeing how well the services are doing right now. Considering our size, the fact that RDU managed 15 weekly frequencies to Europe and still maintain relatively full aircraft with decent cargo yields is truly astonishing. This year that number changes to 19 weekly frequencies based on the existing schedule. From my knowledge, Icelandair initially suggested the idea of going 7x weekly and/or year-round by 2024.
Personally, I’d also love to see the additions of new destinations in Canada and Mexico to broaden our options within North America as well.
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Just thought this was interesting. But there’s a newish airport tower control game that features 4 airports including RDU. I wonder if the company is based nearby or just a random choice.
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I saw this game, its 2040 done for us.
EDIT: These guys are from California, not the Triangle.
If I had to guess why they chose RDU as a starter airport, it’s because our airport is rather large, it’s on relatively flat land, and it doesn’t have crazy things like criss-crossing runways or nail-biting approaches (read: it’s a nice airport to learn how to fly or to pretend to be an air traffic controller).
Click here to see the older version of this post, which has some fun facts.
I think it’s a random choice, but it’s hard to tell.
On one hand, the maker of this game has a long history of making high-quality models of airports around the world for various flight simulators (and for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, RDU was their first airport). But on the other hand, they have a lot of other works dated before that, plus their EULA’s arbitration clause ties players to Orange County in California. This could mean they’re from outside of LA, but there may also be other legal reasons to specifically want arbitration cases to go there (and I’m not a lawyer so I wouldn’t know that full context).
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It’s also a nice looking airport from the outside.
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