Departures from your door
Your ride to RDU airport, reserved around your door time
Reserving a ride to RDU airport starts with three numbers: how many minutes the drive takes from your street, how much room to leave for traffic, and how early you want to stand at the departures curb. We add them up, send you a pickup time and a fixed rate per car, and a car company in the Triangle sends the driver to your door.
How we count back from your flight
Each town on our list was measured by road from the Terminal 2 curb at free-flow speed. That measured figure is the base, a traffic allowance sits on top of it, and then comes the curb margin you pick. Our tables assume two hours before departure.
A worked example: a 9:10 am flight, a home in Cary. The curb target is 7:10 am. Cary measures 17 minutes, plus 10 for traffic, so the car is at your door at 6:40 am, rounded down to the nearest five minutes. From downtown Raleigh (26 minutes plus 15) it would be 6:25 am, and from Wake Forest (35 minutes plus 20) it would be 6:15 am.
- Towns up to 20 minutes away: 10 minutes added for traffic
- Towns 21 to 30 minutes away: 15 minutes added
- Towns beyond 30 minutes: 20 minutes added
At your door: 15 minutes included
The driver arrives at the pickup time on your confirmation and waits up to 15 minutes at no extra cost. Beyond that, waiting is $10 per 15 minutes. The driver helps load bags into the trunk.
Before the day, you receive the car company's name and telephone number, the vehicle and the driver's first name, so you can reach the car directly if a door code or a gate is involved.
Which curb you are dropped at
The car stops at the departures curb of your terminal, Terminal 1 or Terminal 2. Put the terminal in your request if you know it; if not, the flight number is enough and we check it when we confirm.
Tolls on the quoted route are part of the fixed rate, so a trip from Holly Springs over the NC 540 Triangle Expressway costs no more than the figure in your confirmation. A starting price for a sedan is $65 per car, one way, from Zone 1; your exact fixed rate is confirmed with you before you reserve. See the full rate table.
What to tell us when reserving
The reservation form takes requests 24/7.
A short request lets us place the right car the first time. Include these points:
- Pickup address, including apartment or suite and any gate code
- Flight number, date and departure time
- Number of riders and checked bags, to choose sedan, SUV or van
- Age and weight of each child, and whether you bring a seat
- Any extra stop on the way ($15 per stop) and your preferred curb margin
For a flight within the next 12 hours, telephone the desk instead of using the form. For the trip home, see round trips and RDU arrivals.
Early departures
Flights before sunrise need planning too
The first departures leave RDU before most of the Triangle is awake. Reserving the evening before gives the car company time to line up a driver for a very early pickup.
+1 (919) 859-4718Our telephone keeps the airport's clock: it is staffed every day from 4:00 am Eastern Time, ahead of the first departures, until the last scheduled arrival of the night is on the ground. For a pickup before 4:00 am, the car company's number in your confirmation reaches the driver's dispatcher. Requests sent through the website form are received 24/7.