RDU airport’s biggest parking lot is getting bigger; more new spaces open Monday
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- RDU opens 500 new spaces Monday as Park Economy 3 expansion continues
- Expansion includes EV chargers, solar walkways, and customer facilities
- Surface lot chosen over garage to cut costs, meet rising traveler demand
About 500 new parking spaces will open Monday at Raleigh-Durham International Airport as RDU’s largest surface parking lot gets ever larger.
RDU is gradually tripling the size of its Park Economy 3 lot off Aviation Parkway. Nearly 1,700 new spaces opened in June, and more will come online in stages until the lot has about 11,000 spaces next summer.
Contractors have finished cutting more than 100 acres of trees and are nearly done grading the level surfaces for the pavement. The remote lot that was once obscured by forest is now partly visible from Interstate 40, particularly at night when the new LED lights are on.
In addition to more spaces, the larger Park Economy 3 will have features the old one did not. They include:
- A parking guidance system, similar to the one RDU installed in its parking decks more than a year ago. A message board at the main gate will indicate how many empty spaces are in each section, with additional signs at the entrance to the sections. That system should be ready by early next year.
- New covered walkways. The roofs over many of those walkways will be clad with solar panels that will provide much of the power needed to operate the parking lot.
- Electric vehicle chargers. RDU plans to install 100 Level 1 chargers for EVs in a section of the lot near the entrance. Level 1 is the slowest charger, which can take all day or more for a full charge, but it’s enough for travelers to return to a car that’s ready to go.
- Something RDU calls the “customer amenity building,” or CAB. It will have restrooms and vending machines for the public, as well as offices for airport law enforcement and parking staff and their equipment.
- Parking for oversize vehicles. A section of the existing lot will be remade into a special lot with 31 spaces for RVs and trucks with trailers.
The expansion will cost an estimated $164 million and includes rehabbing the existing 3,820 spaces. (As some of the new spaces open, older ones are closed for repaving.)
It’s one of several big construction projects the airport will complete in coming years to try to modernize and keep up with demand. Work has begun on a new main runway, and this fall contractors will begin expanding Terminal 2 to create more space for ticketing and baggage claim and a larger Customs and Border Patrol area for international flights
Not everyone loves a larger parking lot
While travelers may appreciate the new lot, RDU has received plenty of criticism for expanding Park Economy 3. When the airport posts updates about the project on its Facebook page, many of the comments are about the loss of trees.
“No one’s excited for forest being bulldozed for a parking lot, why even post this,” one person wrote in early July. Wrote another: “Looks like a scar on the landscape. Just a sea of asphalt — talk about a heat island.”
RDU needs to build more parking to keep up with demand, counters Michael Landguth, president and CEO. Nineteen airlines now fly to more than 80 places nonstop from RDU, and the airport is on pace to exceed last year’s record of 7.75 million outgoing passengers.
“We continue to grow,” Landguth said in an interview. “And with that growth, it requires making sure that we provide adequate parking for all of our customers.”
Some critics wonder why RDU doesn’t build another parking garage that would require less real estate. The answer, airport officials say, is cost. When RDU was studying its options for new parking it determined that each space in a new deck would cost more than three times as much as a spot in a surface lot.
Avoiding that extra cost is increasingly important as RDU attracts low-cost airlines such as Breeze and Avelo that appeal to people traveling on a budget, Landguth said. RDU charges $12 a day for a spot in Park Economy 3, compared to $21 to $32 a day in the decks between the terminals.
“We have lots of our customers for whom price is important,” Landguth said. “And so providing a product that is reasonable from a parking standpoint is something they want and they need.”
Transit to RDU remains scarce
The vast majority of travelers arrive or depart RDU by car, whether their own, a friend or relative’s, a rental or a taxi, Uber or Lyft. Public transit options are limited.
RDU is served by only one public bus system, GoTriangle, which on weekdays between 6:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. operates a shuttle every half hour between the airport and its transit center near Research Triangle Park. At night and on weekends GoTriangle Route 100, an express bus between the transit center and downtown Raleigh, stops at the airport, though only every hour on weekends.
RDU officials note that the airport draws travelers from throughout central and eastern North Carolina and say 55% of RDU passengers live outside areas that are served by public buses. In addition, dozens of flights leave by 8 a.m., requiring travelers to be at the airport in the pre-dawn hours before buses are available.
Landguth said RDU would support more transit. He said airport officials are involved in early plans for a bus rapid transit line that might someday reach RDU just off I-40, where passengers could take shuttle buses to the terminals. The airport also has plans for a new ground transportation center that would improve access for Uber, Lyft, taxis and other vehicles.
“We want to make sure that each one of our customers, no matter how they want to come to the airport, have the ability to get here based upon the mode of transportation they want to use,” Landguth said. “That’s why we make the investments we do.”
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This story was originally published August 1, 2025 at 5:45 AM.
