The California Connection

A year ago, RDU didn’t have a single daily non-stop flight between our region and California. Today, we have a very successful daily non-stop flight to San Francisco and two daily Los Angeles flights that will begin this Spring. We’ve become quite connected to the Golden State over the past year, and it’s a connection we hope grows stronger over time.

Why are we so well-connected all of a sudden? First, there are a lot of connections between the Tarheel State and California. The gaming and film industries are growing here. There’s also a lot of venture capital firms in the Bay Area that are linked to start-ups here in the Triangle, in the Bull City in particular. And, our computer and technology industries are connected as they long have been.

Also, airlines are changing their business models. It used to be that airlines would rarely fly a route over one of their hubs. But, today, the airlines are looking for profitability on routes and are changing their models to focus on profitable ones. And, they’ve identified a link between North Carolina and California as one with the potential for profit.

[caption id="attachment_271" align="alignright" width="300"] RDU is now well-connected with the Bay Area and Los Angeles.[/caption]

The reason for the likelihood for profitability is that there is demand for  non-stop service between RDU and both San Francisco and Los Angeles. Each day, more than 450 travel between RDU and the L.A. area, which is also America’s second largest city. Likewise, more than 500 people travel between RDU and San Francisco each.

And, both Los Angeles and San Francisco are major jumping off points for destinations throughout the Pacific and Asia. With a growing economy and more international trade, Asia is a growing market for travel from North Carolina and our new non-stop flights provide easy, one-stop connections to destinations throughout Asia and the Pacific Rim.

So how does our California connection benefit you?  You have easier access to new destinations. From San Francisco you can travel on to Portland and Seattle along with other Northwest destinations and Asian cities such as Osaka, Seoul and Tokyo, among others. And, from Los Angeles, you’ll have easy one-stop connections to Australia, Hawaii and California cities such as Santa Barbara, Sacramento and San Diego.

Our new connections bring the West Coast much closer to us and opens opportunities for businesses by shortening the travel time. And, when you’re visiting family or heading off on vacation, you have new options and a shorter trip to make.

We hope you take advantage of our new non-stop flights to California. And, we’ll be working hard to improve the links between RDU and other places throughout the nation and world.