RDU Airport sees uptick in delays, cancellations amid ongoing national flight issues
As omicron-fueled flight problems continue nationally, Raleigh-Durham International Airport is being affected ahead of New Year’s Eve with an uptick in flight delays and cancellations.
Seven domestic flight departures were delayed and eight flights were shown as canceled as of 2 p.m. Wednesday, according to the airport’s flight status page online.
There were a total of 16 recorded cancellations in the U.S. flying within, into or out of the airport for the whole day of Dec. 29, according to FlightAware, a flight data tracking website.
Delta Air Lines and Alaska Air Group canceled hundreds of flights on Tuesday, national media outlets reported. The canceled flights at RDU included those airlines in addition to JetBlue.
Departure and arrival schedule issues at RDU have occurred to varying degrees since Christmas Eve. But the airport hasn’t encountered as many delays as other airports, said RDU spokesperson Stephanie Hawco.
“It isn’t uncommon, but we have not seen widespread delays or cancellations this holiday season,” Hawco said. “And it’s difficult to predict whether or not that will remain the same as people continue to travel over the New Year’s holiday.”
Passenger traffic totals on the day before Christmas Eve and the day after New Year’s Day are expected to surpass the numbers from a year earlier as the busiest days on record at RDU, Hawco said.
There were 37,600 passengers expected to fly on Dec. 23 with another 36,800 passengers on track for flights on Jan. 2.
Flights canceled across the country
Nationally, airlines’ U.S. flight cancellations topped 2,500 over the Christmas weekend, one of the busiest periods of the year, due to a wave of COVID cases fueled by the omicron variant and causing shortages of flight staff, in addition to unfavorable weather conditions in regions like the Pacific Northwest, Bloomberg reported.
At least one flight to Seattle from RDU was canceled and another was delayed on Wednesday.
To ease passenger congestion, RDU was allowing arriving passengers to be picked up at the Terminal 2 arrival and departure curbs on both airport floors.
“Over the winter holidays, we expect to see more cars on RDU’s roads and in its parking garage and lots, along with more people at ticket counters and security checkpoints,” Michael Landguth, president & CEO of the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority, said in a statement.
The airport currently has a heightened presence of traffic-control personnel and law enforcement as part of a strategy to manage the holiday rush traffic.
RDU holiday travel guidance on the airport’s website says to continually check available parking online and to arrive at least two hours before a domestic flight to prepare accordingly.
This story was originally published December 28, 2021 at 5:50 PM.
