News

In 2024, Raleigh/Durham International experienced its busiest year ever, with around 15 million passengers served. With more than 70 nonstop destinations — as close as Charlotte and as far as Frankfurt, Germany — RDU travelers are now more connected than ever.

RDU’s year in review report speaks to five new airlines:  AeroMexico, BermudAir, Copa Airlines, Lufthansa, and WestJet, that are all providing one new international destination each in 2024 or 2025. Other airlines including Air Canada and Avelo are also expanding their offerings at RDU International.

It is a great time to fly to or from the Research Triangle region, and the improvements and projects RDU has completed, have underway, and are upcoming will make the air travel experience even better. From an outstanding new parking guidance system at the main RDU ParkCentral deck to an expanded ParkEconomy 3 lot and upcoming improvements to the John Brantley Boulevard primary ring road, the RDU professional staff and board are working to make travel more seamless before we ever get to the terminals. However — these and other vital projects don’t just happen.

RTA’s top strategic priority for 2025 will continue to be identifying a sustainable business model for RDU infrastructure. RDU was named the fastest-growing top 50 airport in the country in 2024, and the air service needs of this region are only increasing. Those include the associated landside / accessibility infrastructure as well as airside infrastructure including terminal expansions and the replacement of our airport’s primary commercial service runway.

Meanwhile, if you want to learn more about what it takes to replace a runway, you might enjoy this podcast from a year ago from RDU – scroll ahead to the 12m 30s mark.

We will highlight our continued focus on RDU in more detail later this month at our RTA Annual Meeting on January 24 — and throughout the year.

Let’s get moving,

Joe Milazzo II, PE
RTA executive director

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