The longest wait at RDU this holiday season may be outside the terminals. How to avoid it.
If you or a loved one is flying through Raleigh-Durham International Airport over the holidays, be warned that some of the worst crowding will take place on the road and along the curb outside the terminals.
If the Thanksgiving holiday was any indication, the biggest backups will be outside the lower level of Terminal 2, where arriving passengers emerge from the baggage claim area. Some drivers invariably arrive before their passengers are ready and occupy valuable spots while they’re waiting.
RDU is offering some advice to try to relieve those snarls. It includes:
▪ Consider arranging in advance to pick up your arriving party outside the upper level at Terminal 2. That’s normally used for departing passengers only, but RDU is making exceptions during this busy travel season. Because people don’t linger in this area, the traffic often moves more smoothly.
▪ Use RDU’s cellphone lot and wait for your incoming passengers to call when they’ve gotten off the plane. The lot is located at 1000 Trade Drive, near the Aviation Parkway and Airport Boulevard entrances, a few minutes’ drive from the terminals.
▪ Wait 15 minutes after someone has landed to go to the terminal to pick them up. It takes time for passengers to exit the plane, make their way through the terminal and collect checked bags.
▪ Pay attention to the No Parking signs. RDU says it will have more police directing traffic and enforcing parking regulations to discourage people from waiting for incoming passengers where they shouldn’t.
“People won’t be able to park on John Brantley Boulevard,” said RDU spokeswoman Stephanie Hawco. “Of course, they’re never supposed to park on John Brantley Boulevard, but we will be enforcing that strictly.”
Air travel is still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, but people are packing planes over the holidays. RDU expects 494,000 passengers will pass through the airport between Dec. 18 and Jan. 2, down about 15% from 2019.
Airport officials say their busiest day of the holiday season will be Thursday, Dec. 23, when 37,600 travelers are expected. That’s about 7,000 fewer than the busiest day over the Thanksgiving weekend, when holiday travel is confined to just a few days.
“It’s more spread out over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays,” Hawco said. “We don’t have people flying on exactly the same days like they tend to over Thanksgiving. So that helps.”
For travelers parking in RDU’s remote Economy Lot 3, the airport has launched a new phone app that allows them to track the shuttle buses that run between the lot and the terminals. The TransLoc app can be downloaded from Apple or Google Play.
You can find information about airport parking, including cost and capacity in the deck between the terminals, at www.rdu.com/parking/. You can also use the site to book and pay for a parking space at least 24 hours in advance. It’s a few dollars cheaper per day, and you can guarantee a spot in the deck, even when the electronic signs around the airport say the Central and Premier lots are “closed.”
