Icelandair is upping the nonstop flight to Reykjavik to daily beginning in May per the TBJ due to strong demand.
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Aeromexico launching a daily MEX flight starting July 1st next year. MEX was our largest unserved international market.
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I’ve got a couple of friends that fly home to Mexico City every year to visit their families. Very excited for them to have a direct option soon. May have to make a visit myself soon!
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Fabulous city. Great food, chic people, beautiful architecture, and the Museum of Anthropology is one of the best in the world.
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That is wonderful a lot of Hispanics in this area, I think RDU could be a designated international destination hub. That could bring jobs to the area, I would encourage the mayor to try to lure Mexican companies to have offices here. And that’s good for you @PedroPastrana how do you find a way to get to Mexico and back. Now you’ll have a direct flight.
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Mike Landguth said a year or two ago that he could see RDU as an international hub in the next 15 years… I laughed when I saw that. I now rescind my laugh as it appears RDU can’t keep them away. 5 new international carriers since 2021 is INSANE
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It could really benefit we have almost every international destination served.
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Aeromexico launching a daily MEX flight starting July 1st next year. MEX was our largest unserved international market.
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All true, and I’ll add that the city is filled with art!
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RDU is getting a new restaurant called Bobby’s Burgers from celebrity chef Bobby Flay. It will be in Terminal 2, will open by the end of 2024 and will replace the Bruegger’s Bagel.
It is just the second location of the chain in an airport.
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I ate at the one in Vegas! It was pretty good!
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I mentioned this to @GucciLittlePenguin earlier. We both agree it’d be cooler if it was Bob’s Burgers…
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Aer Lingus to Dublin rumored. Wonder if this will happen next year or later.
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Where would they put them? Story in the N&O about the space issue, squeezing in the 2 new carriers today
Irish flights can use domestic gates as Dublin Airport has US Preclearance Facilities.
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Maybe expanding Terminal 1 is the answer they aren’t loved as much as 2. They can be the international ones restore it to its former glory. It was mentioned that expanding the runway over there was a lot easier than the second or at lease make that side an area for Southwest and Avelo.
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There are no customs facilities in Terminal 1, so it can’t handle international flights.
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Well then put some. I hate T1 being sorta pushed back it has potential.
Yes they trow an army’s woth of people and equipment and build it quick. But them in 5 years have to rebuild things because it will be falling apart.
Expansions planned for both terminals. Terminal 1 likely will occur faster, for a nuanced reason. Bear with me while we deep dive!
First, to unpack the word “expansion” a bit: airport terminal spaces offer a number of functions, from security to boarding to customs to bag handling operations… the list goes on.
Terminal 2 currently is geographically “locked in” due to the position of the current runway 5L-23R and adjacent taxiways. You simply can’t add new gates there today. The plan is to go in this order:
- Build the new runway
- Convert the current runway to a taxiway
- Bring the ramp out a bit
- Build piers of new gates off the existing Terminal 2 structure
It’s worth noting that even the Terminal 2 gate expansion has to go in a specific fashion — you can’t just build out all the piers at once, because each one will require taking out a few active gates during construction. You have to do one at a time, so the facility can maintain the current volume of aircraft operations. Fun!
Here’s where we come back to what “expansion” really entails. While you can’t add new gates to T2 today, you can expand the landside (pre-security) half of the building, as well as customs, because those facilities aren’t quite as landlocked. So, this is what you’ll see occur first.
And finally, this is where Terminal 1 comes in. Terminal 1’s gate offerings can be expanded right now, because that facility also is not as landlocked. There’s no specific timing set for that, but it’s reasonable to expect new gates there first.
That’s not the only club the airport has in the bag, of course. RDU has moved to a common-use approach for many gates as a means of making the existing infrastructure more efficient. So, if a gate today only gets used three or four times a day, that gate could see up to seven or eight aircraft turns daily in the future.
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