Sunday was a record day for Raleigh-Durham International Airport
Even for Raleigh-Durham International Airport, where the number of travelers has been steadily growing in recent years, Sunday was an unusually busy day.
A record 54,840 travelers passed through RDU on Sunday, easily eclipsing the previous single-day record set on May 13, the Monday after the weekend of Mother’s Day and several college graduations. On that day, about 53,000 people took flights into or out of RDU.
The airport says that despite the crowds no one had to wait more than 30 minutes to get through the security checkpoints and that 95% of passengers waited less than 15 minutes. Travelers have encountered long lines at the checkpoints this year, particularly during the early morning hours when about a quarter of RDU’s daily flights depart within a span of three hours.
The airport added two lanes to the security checkpoint in Terminal 2 late last spring and plans to add two more next summer. But with RDU attracting growing numbers of passengers, airport officials still urge people to give themselves two hours to find a place to park, check their bags, get through security and find their gate.
RDU officials expect this December to be its busiest ever, but doesn’t expect any single-day records, because holiday travel is more spread out at Christmas than at Thanksgiving.
By the end of October, 11,720,729 travelers had passed through RDU, up more than 11% compared to the same 10-month period last year. That puts the airport on pace to set a new annual record, far outstripping last year’s record 12.8 million passengers.
This story was originally published December 2, 2019 at 5:23 PM.
