RDU to Delay Expansion, Cut Workers

RDU already has cut 115 flights per day in and out of the airport because of the shutdown of Midway Airlines, which had a major hub at the airport. More flight cancellations could follow as a result of decreasing ticket sales.

RDU Communications Manager Mirinda Kosoff said the new terminal project has been suspended because of an anticipated decline in airport revenue.

The project included building an addition to Terminal A, the airport's main terminal.

Kosoff added that federal funding might spur more flights in and out of RDU, replacing the 115 grounded by the Midway shutdown.

President Bush is requesting that Congress pass a bill providing an $8 billion relief package to the airline industry, which was hit especially hard by last week's terrorist attacks.

The package immediately would grant $5 billion to airline companies nationwide.

An additional $3 billion would be set aside for better airport safety and security.

The bill would be in addition to a $40 billion fund Bush signed into law Tuesday.

Four major domestic airlines -- American Airlines, United Airlines, Continental Airlines and U.S. Airways -- have already announced that as many as 25 percent of their employees could be laid off in the upcoming months because of a decreased demand.

But RDU is not the only airport dealing with major setbacks.

Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, the largest U.S. Airways hub in the nation, has not been operating at full capacity since the attacks.

U.S. Airways is set to decrease its number of daily flights by 23 percent in the coming weeks.

It also will be cutting at least 11,000 jobs nationwide

CDI Public Relations Director David Orr added that Charlotte-Douglas flights still are limited.

"Right now only 75 percent of the fleet at (Charlotte-Douglas) is in operation, and of these operating flights seats are only half full," he said. "If things do not return to normal in the upcoming weeks, many of the 71,000 people that work for the aviation industry in Charlotte alone -- 8 percent of all employment in the region -- may be out of the job."

Orr said the fate of the industry rests in the estimated number of future tickets sales.

"The number of tickets U.S. Airways sells determines how many planes are operated," he said. "If people do not get back to business as usual we will see radical changes."

"At the rate things are going right now, every domestic airline will be bankrupt by Christmas," Orr said.

But Kosoff said the federal grant being considered by Congress has kept RDU employees hopeful that the industry will return to normal. "We are more optimistic than worried about the future of the airline industry."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.