Airline hubs at RDU

Raleigh-Durham International Airport has been the hub of several airlines. These include American Airlines, Midway Airlines, New York Air, and Wheeler Airlines.

American Airlines hub
In the mid 1980s, American Airlines aimed to gain market share in the lucrative Northeast-to-Florida travel market and the U.S. East Coast market generally. The airline had little presence in this market, especially as its primary hubs, Dallas/Fort Worth and , were too far west to compete with Delta Air Lines (Atlanta), Piedmont Airlines (Charlotte and Baltimore/Washington), and Eastern Air Lines (Atlanta and Miami).

Two years after beginning service in April 1985, Raleigh-Durham (RDU) was selected as a new East Coast north-south hub connecting the two markets, the Northeast and Florida, that American was coveting. (Nashville was selected as its east-west counterpart.) On June 15, 1987, just two years after initiating service at RDU, American inaugurated its new hub at the new 30-gate Terminal C (as it was called then), which the RDU Airport Authority had sanctioned American to build to suit the airline's own specifications. A new runway was constructed next to the terminal to handle the increased traffic, to accommodate heavy aircraft, and to provide a takeoff run sufficient for an international flight.

In 1988, American launched the first scheduled intercontinental flight from RDU, a daily roundtrip to Orly International Airport in Paris operated using a Boeing 767-200ER.

In mid-December 1989, Eastern Air Lines' creditors and AMR Corporation agreed upon the sale of the former's Latin American routes from Miami. Miami subsequently became an American hub in 1989, which undercut the airline's hub at Raleigh-Durham, with most of the new Miami flights serving Northeastern cities directly, bypassing RDU. Miami's larger market size, coupled with its greater share of origin-and-destination (O&D) traffic than RDU, made operations more profitable for American to fly its Florida-Northeast routes non-stop, without the use of its Raleigh-Durham hub. Despite the presence of the Miami hub, however, traffic at RDU continued to grow, peaking in 1992 with 9.9 million passengers.

Nonetheless, American began downsizing its operations at RDU in September 1993, initiating a three-year period of reductions before shuttering the hub entirely in 1996. Mainline daily departures were reduced to 113 during the period. Service was pared further in May 1994 to 105 daily departures. In January and May 1994, a total of 284 American employees were laid off at RDU; many more were transferred to Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami and other stations.

American discontinued 16 additional daily flights in June 1994, and further pared its mainline daily departures to 70 that August. International service to Paris ceased in September 1994, following the busy summer travel season. However RDU saw a progressive switch from AA to its regional subsidiary American Eagle during the year, and American Eagle flights increased to 112 per day, somewhat offsetting the loss in service, at least temporarily. Ultimately, the regional subsidiary completely pulled out of RDU in January 1995, reducing the hub's daily departures to just 50 per day.

Boeing 727s and McDonnell Douglas MD-80s built the backbone of American's RDU operations; Boeing 767s were used for the trans-Atlantic routes, and DC-10s operated on the LGA/BOS-RDU-MCO/MIA trunk routes for some time. Closer to the termination of the hub, American also operated Fokker F100s there.

With 45 daily departures remaining, the American Airlines hub at RDU was officially closed on May 1, 1996, one year after the closing of American's Nashville hub and shortly before the airline's termination of its San Jose hub.

American Airlines Destinations
Destinations in December of 1989

*Connecticut
**Bradley Hartford International Airport
*Georgia
**Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport
**Savannah Regional Airport
*Florida
**Daytona Beach Interntional Airport
**Ft Lauderdale International Airport
**Ft Myers Airport
**Jacksonville International Airport
**Melbourne Airport
**Miami International Airport
**Sarasota Airport
**Tampa International Airport
**West Palm Beach International Airport
*Illinois
**Chicago O'Hare International Airport
*Ohio
**Cleveland Hopkins International Airport
*Massachusetts
**Boston Logan International Airport
*Michigan
**Detroit International Airport
*New Jersey
**Newark International Airport
*New York
**Albany International Airport
**Buffalo International Airport
**Macarther Islip International Airport
**New York LaGuardia Airport
**New York JFK International Airport
**Rochester Airport
**Syracuse Regional Airport
*North Carolina
**Asheville Regional Airport
**Charlotte Douglas International Airport
**Coastal Carolina Regional Airport (New Bern)
**Jacksonville Regional Airport
**Piedmont Triad Interntional Airport (Greensboro)
**Pitt Greenville Regional Airport
**Wilmington Regional Airport
*Ohio
**Port Columbus International Airport
*Pennsylvania
**Harrisburg Regional Airport
**Philadelphia International Airport
**Pittsburg International Airport
*Rhode Island
**TF Greene International Airport (Providence)
*South Carolina
**Charleston International Airport
**Columbia International Airport
**Fayetteville Regional Airport
**Florence Regional Airport
**Greenville-Spartansburg Regional Airport
**Myrtle Beach Regional Airport
*Tennessee
**Knoxville Regional Airport
**Nashville Interntional Airport
**Tri-City Regional Airport
*Texas
**Dallas-Ft Worth International Airport
*Virginia
**Newport News International Airport
**Norfolk Interntional Airport
**Richmond International Airport
**Roanoke Regional Airport
**Washington Dulles International Airport
**Washington National Airport

*Mexico
**Cancun International Airport
*Puerto Rico
**San Juan International Airport

Midway Airlines hub
After an abortive attempt at New York-Chicago service, startup carrier Midway Airlines relocated its headquarters from Chicago to Morrisville, North Carolina in 1993 and set up its base hub of operations at RDU. Midway's arrival at the airport coincided with the departure of the American Airlines hub that same year, and Midway inherited American's former terminal facilities and gates. At the outset, Midway operated Fokker F100 aircraft that were familiar to American's passenger base.

At the height of its operations, Midway offered almost 200 daily flights from RDU and served 25 destinations along the East Coast. The airline primarily served passengers traveling between cities in the Northeast and Southeast markets.

The high-tech slump of 2000-01 negatively impacted Midway, especially given the airline's reliance on corporate origin-and-destination traffic from its high-tech Research Triangle Park (RTP) hub location. In 2001, Midway laid off 700 employees, about half of its work force, eliminating service to 9 cities and cutting flights to 18 others. The airline also pared its fleet by 17 aircraft. The carrier abruptly filed for bankruptcy on the evening of August 13, 2001; suddenly laying off thousands of employees and disrupting the travel plans of its ticket holders.

After bankruptcy, Midway liquidated its aircraft fleet except for six regional jets. The airline then ceased operations under its own livery and became a US Airways Express affiliate carrier, focusing on regional flights within North and South Carolina. The company ceased operations completely in 2003 after it was unable to secure the capital to stay afloat in the industry downturn following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Midway Airline Destinations

Destinations in May of 2001

*Alabama
**Birmingham International Airport
*California
**Los Angeles International Airport
**San Jose International Airport
*Colorado
**Denver Internaitonal Airport
*Connecticut
**Bradley Hartford International Airport
*Georgia
**Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport
*Florida
**Ft Lauderdale International Airport
**Jacksonville International Airport
**Miami International Airport
**Orlando International Airport
**Tampa International Airport
**West Palm Beach International Airport
*Indiana
**Indianopolis International Airport
*Kentucky
**Louisville International Airport
*Louisiana
**Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
*Massachusetts
**Boston Logan International Airport
*New Jersey
**Newark International Airport
*New York
**Buffalo International Airport
**New York LaGuardia Airport
**New York JFK International Airport
**Rochester Airport
**Stewart Newburgh Regional Airport
*North Carolina
**Coastal Carolina Regional Airport (New Bern)
**Wilmington Regional Airport
*Ohio
**Cleveland Hopkins International Airport
**Dayton International Airport
**Port Columbus International Airport
*Pennsylvania
**Philadelphia International Airport
**Pittsburg International Airport
*Rhode Island
**TF Greene International Airport (Providence)
*South Carolina
**Charleston International Airport
**Columbia International Airport
**Greenville-Spartansburg Regional Airport
**Myrtle Beach Regional Airport
*Virginia
**Norfolk Interntional Airport
**Washington National Airport

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