Seeking balance: Another airline is switching terminals at RDU airport

Business is booming at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, and RDU is once again moving an airline to ease crowding in its main terminal.

Alaska Airlines will move to Terminal 1 starting May 8. Alaska becomes the third airline to shift from Terminal 2 this spring, after Breeze and Sun Country, as the airport continues to handle record numbers of passengers.

Alaska flies once or twice a day between RDU and its hub in Seattle.

With the addition of Alaska, six airlines will operate out of Terminal 1: Avelo, Breeze, Southwest, Spirit and Sun Country. The building has nine gates, compared to 33 in Terminal 2, which will continue to house a dozen airlines, including the two busiest, American and Delta.

Air travel from RDU has come roaring back since the COVID-19 pandemic. Through March, nearly 3.2 million passengers passed through the airport this year, up 9.1% from last year, the busiest on record.

RDU has attracted several new carriers, including three offering flights to new international destinations this summer: Lufthansa to Frankfurt, Germany; Aeromexico to Mexico City; and Copa to Panama City. Those and other international flights from Cancun, London, Paris, the Bahamas and Iceland must arrive at Terminal 2, where the airport’s Customs and Border Protection screening area is located.

The airlines in Terminal 1 all fly domestic routes. When Southwest has an international flight, passengers get off the arriving planes at Terminal 2.

Terminal 1 was known as Terminal A when it opened in 1982. For years it housed most of the airlines doing business at RDU, while first American and then Midway Airlines operated a hub out of Terminal C. After both hubs closed, Terminal C was demolished and replaced by Terminal 2, which opened in 2008.

RDU plans to begin increasing the number of gates in Terminal 2 later this decade, to 53 by 2050, by adding wings to the existing concourses. Before it can begin those additions, however, it must complete a new runway on the western side of the airfield and convert the existing main runway into a taxiway.

The airport also plans to expand Terminal 1, which had only five gates until 2022 when four moth-balled ones were brought back into service.

RDU has only begun to consider options for adding seven, 12 or 15 gates, along with changes to ticketing and baggage claim areas, security checkpoints and potentially the road and drop-off zone in front of the building. The Airport Authority expects to receive conceptual designs and renderings and rough cost estimates by the end of this year.