John Brantley Airport Director

RDU-LAX: An Important Milestone
Editorial

June 8, 2006 was the latest in many important days in the history of RDU. At about 7:00 that evening, a Delta Air Lines B-737-800 lifted off from RDU on the westbound leg of the first daily (except Saturday) roundtrip nonstop service between RDU and the West Coast. The following morning at 6:00 that aircraft returned to RDU from Los Angeles (LAX) to complete the first roundtrip flight. Before its demise, Midway Airlines for a short period operated nonstop daily service from RDU to LAX, but the return flight was via Las Vegas and thus made a stop in the eastbound direction. RDU-LAX is now RDU's longest daily nonstop domestic route, while RDU-London Gatwick (LGW) is the longest daily international route.

Since there are many different routings via a number of airlines by which passengers can travel between RDU and the West Coast on connecting flights, why is having a daily roundtrip nonstop flight between RDU and LAX significant? For one thing, there is the time savings and traveler convenience in not having to make a connection when traveling between the East and West Coasts. For another, LAX is a primary destination and point of origin for business and leisure travelers between the Triangle Region and the Los Angeles Basin. Also, LAX is served by many Pacific Rim airlines and is a primary connecting point for travelers to that part of the world, all the way from China down to Australia and New Zealand, thus offering those travelers another good alternative. Finally, nonstop service between RDU and the West Coast is something the region's business community has wanted and the Authority has sought for many years, so this is the culmination of a long journey.

During 2005, more than 265,000 air passengers (725 per day) traveled between RDU and the Los Angeles Basin and another 250,000 (685 per day) between RDU and the San Francisco Bay area. Nearly 110,000 each (300 per day) traveled between RDU and San Diego and between RDU and Seattle. Much of the growth in RDU's air passengers during the past decade has been to and from points in the western U.S. that are 2,000 or more miles distant. Cutting several hours off those trips by being able to go nonstop as opposed to having to connect at a major hub is a tremendous benefit to the traveler, particularly with so many flights being full these days. That's why it is vitally important that the region's residents and those who visit strongly support the new RDU-LAX nonstop service. This support will lead to more of those flights to that and other West Coast destinations, while lack of support will just as surely result in the service being lost. Next time you need to travel to Los Angeles, please keep in mind there is now a nonstop flight in each direction between RDU and LAX every day but Saturday. We won it, now we have to make sure it's a winner.

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