Raleigh-Durham International Airport Needs Help
With the number of business passengers at the Raleigh-Durham
International Airport on the upswing, a congestion-free terminal is
more important than ever. That makes the ideas of the design team
at Fentress Bradburn Architects, the Denver firm hired to redesign
Terminal C, crucial to efficiently moving travelers through RDU.
Designers are planning simple design elements to smooth passenger
flow.
Thom Walsh, one of the architects working on Terminal C, says
designers are discussing strategies to get people from the parking
lot to their airplanes more quickly. "In the initial phase,
passengers coming from the parking garage will proceed directly
across a bridge to the ticketing level without changing levels,"
says Walsh.
Tim Clancy, chairman of the RDU Airport Authority and president
of Clancy & Theys Construction Co., notes that there will be a
moving sidewalk from the lobby down the concourse "to speed people
to the north end of the gates." The terminal "will also need more
drop-off space, more room in the ticketing lobby," says Clancy.
"The new design allows passengers that are not checking bags to
bypass the ticketing counters and proceed directly to security,"
says Walsh. "Additionally, ticket counters will be in an island
perpendicular to the curbside to facilitate flow through to
security and on to the concourse."
That flow is particularly important since the terminal is being
redesigned from a hub for American Airlines to an
origin-and-destination terminal where 95 percent of the passengers
do not change planes, but arrive at and leave from RDU.
"That makes big choke points on the outside of the terminal,
outside of security and (in) ticketing," says Clancy. "The way you
go from ticketing to the gates now is a fairly narrow corridor.
It's hard to put a lot of security there because there's not
room."
Clancy says the Terminal
C rebuild needs more security checkpoints to decrease waiting time
and lines. "There are two or three lines now," he notes. "You may
need 10 to accommodate more people." Clancy notes that at the new
Terminal C, designers are planning unmanned ticket kiosks where
travelers can check in by computer, eliminating the stop, and the
line, at the busy airline check-in desk. Therefore, says Clancy,
"many more of those passengers don't have to interact with an
agent. Except handling the bag, they don't have to check in
there."
The airport will, however, need more ticketing space for baggage
handlers, says Clancy. That's not to say all ticketing will be
automated. Each airline needs an attendant to handle ticketing as
needed and passengers who need help transferring to another plane
need access to an airline person who can provide them information,
notes Clancy.
Another design change will allow people arriving on
international flights to leave the airport immediately after going
through customs, Clancy says.
"Now, the way it's set up, you have to get your bag after it's
gone through customs, send it through the bag carousel and pick it
up at bag pickup," says Clancy. "There are no exits from the
international area and you have to walk back through the terminal.
You double-check your bag. With the new one, once customs is
cleared, you will walk right outside with your bag."