Iceland is fun! The locals are kind of ambivalent on the mass tourism thing, but the scenery is unreal and the lamb and fish are delicious.
I lucked into a daylong layover in Copenhagen on the way back, so that’ll be a blast.
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What did it cost? I go to Helsinki every now and then to see friends there and the flight is usually quite expensive.
I’m flying back out from Vilnius, so it’s a multi-city itinerary. $1059 all in with taxes, etc.
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That’s not bad at all! I usually pay more for the round trip to Helsinki. If you enjoy the Baltic, and you go again, I’d suggest overnight ferries that take you from seaport city to seaport city for a low price that transports you and gives you a night of lodging.
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I think we’re skipping Finland, for logistical reasons only, but doing the trains between countries. It’s a year out, so gonna finish this anniversary trip before we plan the next one. Lol
Sounds like this forum is actually a good resource for that, though!
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My daughter and wife loved, loved, loved Oslo. Just saying . . .
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Oslo is wonderful. Loved most of it, but the ski jumping museum is such a unique experience.
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With Air France now taking over on the CDG route, and KEF going 6x weekly next summer, I’m anticipating a new TATL route sometime in 2024 or 2025. Before Covid, they were in meaningful discussions for Amsterdam and Frankfurt, which I assume could be picking back up (Amsterdam may be a little bit more difficult), and before getting Icelandair, they also were working on possibly getting Dublin.
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As per WRAL RDU just got authorization to start their new runway, to be complete by 2028.
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The News & Observer mentioned some key details on this, too:
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I had previously questioned why a runway was so expensive to build. The RDU account on Reddit gave some info that I thought was interesting and you all might as well:
https://www.reddit.com/r/raleigh/comments/16awr2v/comment/jzap3e9/
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For those that don’t go to the reddit thread, here’s a video they shared as well:
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Looking forward to the upgrades. Everything looks great but I do wonder why they don’t look to expand Terminal A. Looks to be alot more room for expanded runway and more gates over there but I’m sure there is an explanation for that. I was under the impression we were adding another runway but it looks like we are just replacing B’s with a longer one.
Wish there was a way to keep the existing B Runway and just add another one since it will be a couple hundred yards away. That would give us 3 and room to grow and add more and more flights.
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They can’t expand terminal 2 without moving the runway.
Yep, that’s why I was saying “I wish there was a way”. As in, to expand the terminal without having to move the runway…or expand Terminal A instead. Just wish if they were building a whole separate runway that we could somehow salvage the old one. Esp since these things are 500 mill each. But I don’t know enough about this so maybe 2 runways is enough to support all the growth we will see in the next 20-40 years.
If you look at the post from @Daniel above with the Reddit link someone asks that question and the RDU Reddit person answers that somewhat.
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Ah gotcha. I didn’t read thru the Reddit. Thanks
Eventually RDU will become a hub again I’ll come in due time. Possibly choose terminal 1, though terminal 2 I don’t know they can’t expand until this new runway is installed. My first trip alone to Florida was a very quiet terminal 1.
I was talking to a friend here in Alabama yesterday. The Southern Historical Conference is in Charlotte this year, and he was saying how crazy expensive it was to fly from BHM to CHT, even though I know that you can fly BHM, thru Charlotte to RDU pretty reasonably. Why the difference? Well probably because CHT is a hub and has Charlotte under their thumb with almost no competition. Sure it would be nice for RDU to become a minor hub with more direct flights to places. But to end up dominated by one airline, like Charlotte, will be costly to travelers. And ever noticed how lousy the actual airport is in Charlotte? Cramped halls, small gates areas, long walks?? What’s the motivation to change it? American sure doesn’t have any - I mean, what are the Charlotte folks gonna do?
I think RDU is probably pretty lucky to be a growing airport served by a range of airlines. Many cities would be thrilled to have the service RDU enjoys.**
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FWIW… that runway was basically at the end of its service life. I did flight school at RDU a few years back, and they were servicing it then. Contractors would basically work all day with just a few hours opening to let the transatlantic flights through on the longer runway. My understanding was this was a patch job so this thing could limp along to the new runway. Don’t think expanding to three was really in the cards.
E: I see the you used word “salvage” now. I think that basically sums it up.
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