Raleigh Durham International Airport

Raleigh-Durham International Airport (KRDU) sits 10 miles northwest of downtown Raleigh and 15 miles southeast of Durham. Commercial service is significant (Delta, American, United, Southwest, Frontier, JetBlue, Spirit are the major carriers) and the field handles a meaningful flow of business aviation, particularly driven by the Research Triangle Park corporate corridor (IBM, SAS, Cisco, GlaxoSmithKline, Cree, Lenovo), the universities (Duke, UNC, NC State), and the year-round leisure flow into the area.

The two parallel runways (5L/23R 10,000 ft, 5R/23L 7,500 ft) handle every current business jet without restriction. Two FBOs (Signature and Landmark Aviation) handle business movements. Field elevation is 435 feet, no density-altitude concerns. The dominant operational considerations are summer Southeast thunderstorms (April–October), occasional winter ice storms (the Raleigh area gets enough ice that even small events can ground the airport), and the structural event windows around NC State football, ACC basketball tournaments when hosted in the Triangle, and major Duke basketball games. Ground time to RTP is 5–15 minutes; downtown Raleigh is 15–25; downtown Durham is 15–25; Chapel Hill is 25.

Raleigh–Durham International Airport, locally known by its IATA code RDU, is an international airport that serves Raleigh, Durham, and the surrounding Research Triangle region of North Carolina as its main airport. It is located in unincorporated Wake County, but is surrounded by the city of Raleigh to the north and east, and the towns of Cary and Morrisville to the south. The airport covers 5,000 acres (20 km2) and has three runways.