RDU Lobbies For Another Non-Stop International Flight
(WUNC Radio – March 31, 2015) (listen)
There is a major push to bring a second Trans-Atlantic flight to Raleigh Durham International Airport. The Airport Authority wants it, the business community wants it, and so do travelers.
Michael Landguth is the President and CEO of the RDU Airport Authority. He says between 2008 and 2012, demand for international travel jumped by almost 30-percent at RDU.
“Our region is very diverse and that diversity brings lots of people from all over the world, so making sure that we can connect citizens of our regions all across the world," said Landguth.
Landguth says convincing a carrier to come to RDU has gotten a little more difficult with all the airline mergers in recent years. That means fewer of these big birds are in the sky.
And the investment is big. It will cost about $75 million to put one airplane in a community like RDU to fly one international flight a day.
“Thank you American Airlines for that flight. That’s great. We’d like to see another flight," said Joe Milazzo.
Joe Milazzo is Executive Director of the Regional Transportation Alliance, a business group that focuses on transportation.
He says air service development is economic development. A NC State study shows adding an international flight to Paris or Frankfurt would have a $1.4 billion dollar economic impact over 25 years and create thousands of jobs. Milazzo says it’s time to push ahead.
“In many ways the domestic service is coming along pretty well. Five or six years ago, how many West Coast flights did we have? None," said Milazzo. "Now we have multiple to San Francisco, we’ve got multiple to Los Angeles. So where should our focus be, international is the place to go.”
The Regional Transportation Alliance has partnered with RDU and the business community to raise a half million dollars to promote and recruit international non-stop service. Milazzo says they’re half way there.