It seems so, yes. Pre-COVID they had ORD, IND, CMH, CLE, PIT, PHL, BWI, JAX, MSY which have not all returned since then.
~Tolbs
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Wasn’t RDU one of Delta’s focus cities? Not quite a hub but enhanced flight schedules. Now this article is a few years old. https://crankyflier.com/2021/03/09/deltas-decision-to-dump-focus-cities-makes-me-wonder-what-is-a-focus-city/
When I flew home on delta this weekend they said they were a Raleigh based crew.
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RDU is one of only 2 Delta focus city airports that remain. The other is Austin. At one point Nashville was one, along with Cincinnati and San Jose. Delta has formally dropped those 3 cities, and continues to name RDU and Austin as focus cities, although it’s kind of squishy what that actually means.
In Austin Delta is adding quite a bit of new once-a-day service on small planes to cities similar to those RDU has and used to have. Delta is extremely limited on pilots and aircraft on how much it can realistically grow anywhere. Delta’s limitations are especially problematic at Austin, which is drastically overcrowded and just now beginning and expansion of their facilities that will take years and years to create any more space for Delta or any other airline to substantially fly more volume than they already do into Austin. That’s a bit similar of a situation to RDU, which at least has already started on the enabling projects to make space for an expanded Terminal 2.
From my discussions with airport leadership, they still as of now do not know how they will pay for an expanded Terminal 2. All the current projects are for
- parking and unjamming the traffic in front of both terminals by improving the circulation and traffic flow.
- the new runway replacing the current runway adjacent to Terminal 2
- adding space for passengers to check in with luggage, clear security, and clear customs (upon arrival) more efficiently
They still need to find money for the consolidated rental car center and any terminal expansion for adding gates to terminal 2, along with anything that would ever change or expand over at Terminal 1.
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From my discussions with airport leadership, they still as of now do not know how they will pay for an expanded Terminal 2. All the current projects are for
- adding space for passengers to check in with luggage, clear security, and clear customs more efficiently
To be precise, this is part of the Terminal 2 expansion; the landside construction will break ground soon. The projects have to follow a somewhat linear progression due to space constraints. New RWY 5L-23R > convert current 5L-23R to taxiway and expand ramp > expand Terminal 2 airside in phases. Can’t do the last part until you do the first part.
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I guess in the meantime they can up their Charlotte and Atlanta service onto 747’s departing every hour.
Besides, the airport isn’t expanding all of T-2 at once and still have 3 years before they’ll likely even be able to break ground on any of the airside stuff at the earliest. In terms of landside expansion, expansion is already a necessity in terms of check-in counters, baggage claim, security lanes, and customs.
RDU to Nassau on Avelo. Should add up to 16 international routes now.
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They are also adding Grand Rapids (GRR) and resuming Wilmington, DE (ILG). This brings us to 60 destinations on Low Cost Carriers, and brings our LCC map to this:
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Better than nothing I suppose. Just so unlikely to ever plan around these limited random day fly options.
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