MORRISVILLE – Passenger traffic through Raleigh-Durham Airport increased 80% in 2021 compared to 2020, thanks in part to strong passenger numbers between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, a spokesperson for the airport told WRAL TechWire today. But the 8.8 million travelers who flew through RDU in 2021 fell far short of the 14.2 million travelers who flew through the airport in 2019, prior to the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic.
“RDU finished the year strong thanks to a busy winter holiday season, with more than 943,000 passengers traveling through the airport in December,” said Michael Landguth, president and CEO of the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority in a statement sent to WRAL TechWire today. “Although we have not fully recovered compared to the record-setting year we had in 2019, we are confident RDU will continue to grow at a healthy pace in 2022.”
Prior to the onset of the global pandemic, the airport experienced its highest level of passenger traffic in 2019, and according to Stephanie Hawco, the director of media relations for the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority, about half of all passenger traffic came from business travel.
But business travel has fallen in proportion to leisure travel, said Hawco, and in 2021, only represented about one-third of all travel through RDU. Business leaders weren’t anticipating business travel to bounce all the way back in 2021, as WRAL TechWire reported in July.
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“There has been an increase in Zoom meetings and technology use,” said Hawco. Yet 2022 could see some business travel return, as well as the return of international travel, and Hawco noted that industry forecasts do seem to indicate that airports like RUD could see a return of business and international travel during the year.
Compared to passenger traffic levels nationally, RDU ended the year at about 73% of 2019 levels, when passenger traffic was at an all time high, while the national recovery rate was about 82%. The reason RDU lagged the national recovery rate was due to the decrease in business travel, said Hawco.
“We’re hopeful this year is going to mark a return for business travel,” said Hawco. “We think it looks promising.”
December 2021 was an especially busy month for RDU, compared to the rest of the year, with 943,000 passengers flying through the airport, a 146% increase from the prior year, though still a 26% decrease from 2019 travel.
Don’t expect high passenger numbers in January, though, said Hawco, as historically, January is the slowest travel month of the year for RDU.
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Meanwhile, though the airport’s focus in the coming days will be on operations of the airport during what appears to be an incoming winter storm, the Authority will continue to seek funding for what it called in a statement “the airport’s most significant capital project – the replacement of our primary runway, 5L/23R.”
Federal funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that RDU will receive total $73 million over the next five years, all of which will be allocated to the runway replacement, which is expected to cost nearly $400 million.
“We’ll be looking at every funding source possible,” said Hawco, including available grant funding, potentially through the FAA.
The runway is still operational and safe, noted Hawco. “It was poured in the 1980s, it is still safe for flying,” said Hawco. “But it is time.”
