Pandemic forces RDU to scale back a planned, longer runway and its ambitions
Raleigh-Durham International Airport has scaled back its plans and ambitions for a proposed new main runway, as the reduction in air travel caused by the coronavirus pandemic threatens to last for years.
RDU had planned to replace its 10,000-foot main runway with one that is 11,500 feet long. The extra length would ensure that large jets loaded with passengers, luggage and fuel bound for Asia would have enough room to safely take off in all kinds of weather.
Now RDU says it will replace its aging 10,000-foot runway with one that’s the same length.
“There is no longer an immediate need for the longer runway because of the sharp decline in air travel,” Michael Landguth, the airport’s president and CEO, said Thursday. “As we replace the runway at 10,000 feet, staff preserve the option for future extension.”
RDU’s main runway, on the west side of the airport in front of Terminal 2, was completed in 1986 and is nearing the end of its useful life. Contractors have replaced hundreds of slabs of crumbling concrete in recent years, working mostly at night when the runway isn’t needed.
At 10,000 feet, RDU’s main runway is long enough for the largest planes that call there, including cargo carriers, nonstop flights to Paris and London and the occasional visit from Air Force One and military aircraft. The airport’s other commercial runway, on the east side of the airfield, is 7,500 feet long, good for most domestic flights.
Lengthening the main runway was part of a broader strategy to entice an airline to offer nonstop service to Asia, most likely China. Three years ago, RDU and Duke University hosted a symposium for business, university and government leaders aimed at building support for nonstop flights between the Triangle and China.
The potential customers for the 7,000-mile flight were thought to include companies with Chinese ties such as Lenovo and Smithfield Foods; Duke, which has a campus outside Shanghai; and tourists from both countries.
The coronavirus pandemic has cast doubt on the future of air travel around the globe. The number of passengers passing through RDU remains 70% below pre-COVID-19 levels, and airlines are offering half as many flights from the Triangle now as they did a year ago.
Before the pandemic, RDU was planning several construction projects to meet growing demand, including new gates in both terminals, a new centralized car rental facility and expansion of one of its remote parking lots. Those projects have been shelved, and Landguth has said RDU doesn’t expect to even need its existing remote parking lots until 2024.
Shortening the planned runway will allow RDU to replace it faster and at lower cost, according to spokeswoman Stephanie Hawco. The new runway was expected to cost $350 million, and Hawco said RDU hasn’t yet calculated the savings from making it shorter.
In addition, because so many other elements of the airport’s expansion have been put on hold, the Federal Aviation Administration has agreed to allow RDU to do a less comprehensive environmental review focused on the proposed runway. Bill Sandifer, RDU’s chief operating officer, says that review should begin later this spring and take 15 to 18 months to complete.
Assuming the FAA and other agencies approve the project and RDU can put together the financing, the new runway will take another three years to build next to the existing one.
This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 4:48 PM.
