Flying over the holidays? Here’s what you can expect at RDU airport
If the holidays will be your first time flying since the coronavirus pandemic began, your trip through Raleigh-Durham International Airport will feel very different to you.
For starters, the crowds of people and long lines that usually fill the terminals this time of year are gone. RDU expects 104,000 travelers will pass through the airport the week starting Dec. 21, down 64% from last year.
With business way off, parking is a whole lot easier these days. RDU doesn’t need its remote park-and-ride lots and doesn’t expect they will reopen until 2024. There are plenty of spots in the big parking deck between the terminals, so you’ll be able to walk from your car rather than pile in to a shuttle bus.
As you planned your trip, you may have noticed fewer options for nonstop flights from the Triangle. This time last year, airlines offered nonstops from RDU to 57 destinations, including 5 international ones. Now that’s down to 37 nonstop destinations, an increase from 25 at the lowest point in air travel earlier in the year.
Once you get through security, you’ll notice several shuttered shops and restaurants in the terminals. There just hasn’t been enough traffic to keep some of them in business. But several are open, and you’ll find a list of them and their hours at www.rdu.com/shops-and-restaurants/.
Then there’s all the steps RDU and airlines have taken to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus and make people feel more comfortable flying. Masks are required in the terminals and on planes; if you get to the airport and don’t have one, RDU will give you a mask at the information desks, courtesy of FEMA.
RDU has stepped up its cleaning and disinfection and put hand-sanitizer stations throughout the terminals. It has placed signs and floor decals and marked off seats in waiting areas, all to encourage social distancing. You’ll find Plexiglas shields at all airline and TSA desks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is discouraging travel this holiday season to curb the spread of COVID-19. But Michael Landguth, president of RDU, says the airport expects a modest increase in travel over Christmas and New Year’s compared to recent weeks.
“We do realize that customers will travel,” Landguth said. “And when they do travel we want to make sure they fly with confidence and they can fly smart and be safe when they come to our facility and board those airplanes.”
Landguth said despite the smaller crowds and shorter lines, travelers should still allow 2 hours to park, check in, check luggage and get through security to the gate.
“Don’t forget, the airlines start boarding their airplanes 40 minutes before scheduled departure,” he said. “So by the time you add in all those steps, two hours is an adequate amount of time.”
RDU forced to cut costs
About 14.2 million passengers passed through RDU in 2019; this year, that number will be about 5 million, and half of those people traveled last winter, before the pandemic hit North Carolina.
The drop in airline travel has been hard on RDU’s budget. The loss in revenue from parking, passengers and airlines has prompted the airport to cut operating expenses 17% and shelve several construction projects, including the opening of new gates in Terminal 1 and the expansion of the security checkpoint area in Terminal 2.
RDU says it saved more than $157,00 in janitorial costs through an effort it called Operation Clean Sweep, in which more than 150 employees volunteered to paint, pick up litter, do landscaping and other work. The airport has also offered an incentive package to encourage employees to leave, helping reduce the payroll of 350 full-time employees by 10% by January.
Landguth said airlines are expecting another sag in travel after the holidays, fueled in part by concerns about another post-holiday increase in coronavirus cases across the country. Beyond that, he said, between the depressed national economy and the slow financial recovery of the airline industry, it could be 5 to 7 years before RDU sees the number of passengers it did last year.
Vaccines for COVID-19 are reason for optimism, Landguth said, that 2021 will be a better year for travel than 2020.
“RDU will get back up. We’re going to be ready,” he said. “When customers are truly really ready to travel, when business leaders are ready to get their people back in airplanes, we’re going to be here.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Flying over the holidays? Here’s what you can expect at RDU airport."
