John Brantley Airport Director

The New Terminal C Takes Shape
Editorial

At long last, structural steel is going up on the new Terminal C and the outline of the building is taking shape. It’s been four years since design of that facility began and nearly six years since the Authority switched its terminal redevelopment plans from replacing Terminal A to creating a new Terminal C. Now we’re less than two years away from opening the north half of the new facility and only four years from completing changes to the south concourse. Time is flying, and well it should.

The new terminal is going to be a great facility. It’s one we’ve spent a lot of time and energy making flexible, aesthetically attractive, comfortable, adaptable, functional and able to be used efficiently. It also will be able to accommodate far greater traffic loads than initially will be needed for many years to come with periodic renovation, not redevelopment. It will be an ideal complement to the big parking garages that were built from 1997–2003 and are, in my opinion, the best on an airport anywhere in the U.S., if not the world.

When phase one of the new facility opens in the summer of 2008, we’ll move American, United and Air Canada into the new space and begin phase two of the Terminal C redeveloment. At that time, we’ll also relocate Delta from Terminal A to the new space (Continental, Northwest and US Airways also will relocate when Terminal C is completed). Doing so will allow us to undertake a project we (and you) have looked forward to for a long time — combining the two parts of Terminal A so there is only one ticketing area and one baggage claim area in that facility.

We’re going to accomplish that combination in a series of steps. First will come constructing a box on the aircraft parking ramp where Delta’s Gates 15 and 16 currently are located to which all outgoing baggage will be sent and screened by the TSA before being loaded aboard aircraft. That box will be two stories high. The upper level will house a new security screening checkpoint on a single floor level, unlike today where people queue up and have their boarding passes checked downstairs. This step also will add a fourth baggage claim conveyor on the lower level of the blue building.

Later, we’ll reconfigure the ticketing area to remove the individual airline baggage makeup rooms and create island-style counter areas like we’ll have in new Terminal C. This will allow all of the existing baggage security screening equipment to be removed from the bag rooms and the lobby, affording passengers considerably more room to move about than at present. When that’s done, we’ll relocate Southwest to the blue building (AirTran will be moving there later this year) and discontinue all ticketing and baggage claim in the older building section. The existing “sloping floor” baggage claim area probably will be removed, but the security screening checkpoint in that area likely will be retained.

That work should make Terminal A operate more efficiently, be simpler to the customer, and function very much like new Terminal C, thereby improving its utility. It also will allow Southwest, AirTran, JetBlue and any new additions to RDU in the interim to grow their service levels in the future as the carriers in new Terminal C will be able to do.

We don’t know what the ultimate level of use of RDU will be, we just know the airport will continue to grow as the Triangle Region continues to grow in population and economic activity. We do know that when the terminal projects are done, you’ll have an airport that will be able to serve your air travel needs very well and give you great service for many years to come. That’s our mission, and we’re continuing the march.

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