Delta Air Lines to launch nonstop service between Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and Kansas City, Missouri

This spring, Delta Air Lines will launch a new nonstop flight to Kansas City International Airport (MCI) in Missouri with a route that won’t touch any of its major hub cities like Atlanta, Detroit or Salt Lake City.

Beginning in May, the Atlanta-based carrier will serve MCI each day with a Delta Connection regional jet from Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) in North Carolina.

On its own, the new service — which will transport just over 70 passengers between the cities — might hardly sound newsworthy. But in a lot of ways, this point-to-point route is a sign of Delta’s growing point-to-point network out of RDU, as first reported by Ishrion Aviation.

Delta’s new RDU-MCI route

Starting May 7, Delta’s RDU-MCI service — operated by wholly owned regional subsidiary Endeavor Air — will run daily with a morning westbound flight and an evening return to the East Coast.

Here’s how the itinerary shakes out:

RDU-MCI: Departs 7:55 a.m. Eastern time; arrives 9:41 a.m. Central time
MCI-RDU: Departs 6:55 p.m. Central time; arrives 10:19 p.m. Eastern time

Growing its North Carolina footprint

This new route is the latest evidence of Delta’s growth aspirations at the central North Carolina airport.

While not a hub for any of the “Big Three” network U.S. carriers — American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines — RDU was once a “focus city” for Delta, though the carrier doesn’t use that term anymore.

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During the first half of this year, the carrier’s seats from RDU will be up nearly 5% over last year and will come close to the presence Delta had at the airport before the coronavirus pandemic in 2019.

Point-to-point growth

A notable part of Delta’s current footprint at the airport is a growing list of flights to destinations other than Delta hubs.

At RDU, Delta competes with United on flights to that carrier’s Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) hub. It does the same with American Airlines to Miami International Airport (MIA).

And, the carrier has RDU service to a slew of airports that aren’t its own hubs, including Nashville International Airport (BNA), Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), Tampa International Airport (TPA) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) near Washington, D.C. — not to mention Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS), an airport where the carrier has similarly expanded its footprint over the past year.

The significance of this is that if you’re flying Delta out of RDU, there’s a good chance you might not have to connect in Atlanta or elsewhere, as shown on the below map from aviation analytics firm Cirium.

That growth is poised to continue in 2025 with this route and, perhaps, more to come.

Regional subsidiary to launch RDU crew base

Endeavor Air this month said it would launch a crew and maintenance base at the airport during the second quarter of 2025, owing to its bevy of Delta Connection flights to nonhub cities.

“Endeavor’s current network includes considerable RDU-to-outstation activity,” Brian Darsow, Endeavor Air’s chief operating officer, noted in a statement announcing the news.

Could that foreshadow more future service?

Time will tell.

We should note: American Airlines last year remained RDU’s top carrier in terms of seats — owed, in part, to its nonstop flight to London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) on a Boeing 777-200ER that’s a lot larger than any jet Delta flies out of the North Carolina airport.