RDU is the fastest growing airport in the U.S. Top 50
“According to information provided by the airlines, there are 190,000 more seats available on RDU flights in July 2023 than there were in July 2022. That’s a 22.5 percent increase—the highest percentage growth among the Top 50 airports in the continental U.S.”
https://www.rdu.com/rdu-is-the-fastest-growing-airport-in-the-u-s-top-50/
Anyone know when the new food and drink spots will be open? It’s the slimmest of slim pickings at RDU these days.
Edit: A lot of signs say Spring 2024. That’s a long time for this place to be as barren as it has been. They probably need a sign for folks going towards the international gates to warn them that Le Farm (in the center of the terminal) is the only coffee option.
Yeah we flew in March and it was disturbingly bare for food options. Flying again on Tuesday and I had hoped more stuff would’ve opened. I’m excited for all the new places, but you’re completely right that this is a long time between. I do think Black and White Coffee is supposed to be opening sometime this summer.
I feel like in the interim, they should encourage people to bring their own food and beverages. Like I want to sit outside 42nd St Oyster Bar’s old spot with a can of clam chowder and an airplane bottle of bourbon. Not quite the same, but better than nothing.
That’s great! For a while it seemed like its post-pandemic recovery was lagging other airports, likely b/c pre-pandemic we had a higher % of business travelers and that has not recovered as well as leisure.
Even with this positive news, I noticed that it is a 22% year-over-year increase, but only up 1% from 2019. Would be interesting to see overall YTD numbers today compared to 2019 for the top 50. I think that would give a clearer picture of where the airport actually stands longer-term.
In summer of 2024, with Icelandair service increases & Air France joining RDU, RDU will have 4,824 seats per week (at peak). From 2019, that’s an increase of 1,331 (38%). From 2023, it is a change by 531 seats per week, which is 12.4%
-Beyu Caffe will open two locations in a few weeks (one in each terminal)
-Should be some interim concepts (grab-and-go, beer and wine service, etc.) coming to C concourse soon. Hoping to announce that shortly.
-The first phase of new concepts – Crawford’s Genuine, Carolina Craft and Black & White – will open spring 2024.
-The second phase – about 10 more units, from Raleigh Beer Garden to Dunkin’ – will be later in 2024.
you can bring all the chowder you want in 3oz or less containers that fit in a single Qt sized Ziploc bag.
Damn government and their rules. I should be able to just drink my chowder directly from the Ziploc bag…
Another reason we need a hub in Raleigh, cmon Avelo Airlines, Breeze, Delta what are you doing? Im glad RDU is having a renaissance from its old days… Hopefully know one obstructs our growth and if someone has a concern with a hub ill remind them of American Airlines and Midway so I can shut them up.
Interestingly, Charlotte has a huge AA hub and many people there are envious of us/RDU for not being hub captive and getting unique options on routes like the AF non-stop to Paris.
Not a big problem with a budget airline like Avelo or Breeze, but the legacy airlines often get pricing power at their hubs due to capacity, so things get pricier for flyers.
That being said, having a hub airport has plenty of pros. I’d love to see Breeze designate us as such (I know Avelo is more likely, but I’m not a fan of their product). But the grass isn’t always greener - RDU does a phenomenal job of attracting airlines for underserved routes as is, which will be further bolstered by our growing population and future gate expansion.
Mayor Baldwin is the best mayor this city has had in a longtime we have to fight next year to give her the council she needs if she decides to run for re-election.
Yep and we have the space for it, I hope the city has no say in it. But a hub for a low-cost carrier that’s growing will be great for us.
Avelo already considers RDU an operating base… the closest thing they have to a “hub”.
Nope I want to see a designation not good enough for me, I want us to be on flight tracker. In fact I was thinking I was looking at a map Timelapse of how all flight traffic was diverted to the nearest airport on that dark September day 22 years ago, and how RDU was listed as we had our share of planes landing there, if something like that happened today we would not be on that map because we’re not a hub anymore, and even then AA still had a presence here even after the HUB days. and we had another HUB midway airlines which was HQed in Morrisville.
According to RDU Instagram AF will upgrade to daily service for the summer season starting March 31st.
Booked a ticket to Helsinki last week using Icelandair’s routes via Keflavik. Such a useful addition to our travel options!
Realized our trip to Scandinavia next year would fall during the Paris Olympics, so that Iceland route is looking a lot more appealing than the Air France through CDG. Plus we’ve never been to Iceland. Hoping they still do those daylong layovers.
I think it’s a core part of their business - they give you the option to select how many days you want to layover in the country. I can’t imagine them getting rid of it. Easy way to increase tourism.
Did the stopover with them last year, it was awesome. Also a fantastic way to (1) enter the Schengen area (KEF is great), and (2) get adjusted to Europe time before reaching your final destination.
