Let’s talk about another brief American hub adventure, this time it’s the one in Raleigh/Durham. The airport built its first terminal in 1955, and it has been like a yo-yo… growing, shrinking, and growing again over the many years since. But for a glorious minute, it was an important hub. Well, semi-important.
In 1955, what became Terminal B was built. That was the airport’s only terminal until it was expanded into a brand new Terminal A in 1982. At least, I think it was expanded into A from the beginning and not connected later, which makes it seem really strange that this wasn’t all just Terminal A… but I digress.
And then in 1985, American decided RDU would become a hub, so it built its own, fancy Terminal C on the other side of the central terminal roadway. It opened in 1987. Here’s what it looked like at its peak in the 1990s, including the southern extension of Terminal A.
But then, 1995 hit, and just as was the case in Nashville, American closed its RDU hub. The building was going to be empty until Midway Airlines was reincarnated and tried to create a profitable hub of its own. It succeeded in making a hub, but profitable? That’s a big ask. Midway limped through 9/11 and eventually went away. Then, the airport had to figure out what it was going to do.
RDU had problems. On one side, it had Terminals A and B which were built in pieces between 1955 and the 1990s. It was a small, mess of a facility. On the other side, it had a fairly-new Terminal C which had one glaring problem… it was built for a hub. That means it had plenty of gate space (though outdated and small) alongside a very undersized headhouse. With the hub gone, Terminal C would need to rely on local traffic, so something had to change to make it functional. Apparently, the end decision was that EVERYTHING had to change.
RDU decided it would scrap the AA hub building completely. In its place, it would build a nearly-identical-sized structure that would be built to function better for local traffic. The new terminal was built in phases with the first half opened in 2008 and the second in 2011. Done with the letter-naming convention, that new building became Terminal 2 while the A and B became a combined Terminal 1 as it always should have been.
With that facility open, the pressure was off Terminal 1. In the mid-2010s, a plan was put into place to shrink the footprint over there and update what was left. The new renovated Terminal 1 was opened in 2014. Within the next few years, both the southern gate extension and the original 1955-built Terminal B were gone.
Today, Terminal 1 has become the Southwest + ULCC terminal with Avelo, Breeze, and Sun Country all using it. (Oh, and Alaska too.) But as several airlines try to ratchet up their service at RDU, most notably Breeze, the airport is planning for what comes next.
In the near-term, there is a project to expand security and international arrival facilties. But in Vision 2040, the airport’s master plan expects to significantly increase the size of Terminal 2 with additional concourses. It will also rebuild a new southern extension on to Terminal 1.
It seems wild that Terminal 1 continues to play a role into the distant future, but that probably makes it easier to spread traffic between the two runways. But anyway, this plan is pretty far off at this point. When the time for growth comes, however, this is how the airport is going to make it happen… unless something changes between now and then.
