Founding

The region's first airport opened in 1929 as Raleigh Municipal Airport, in South Raleigh. It was quickly outgrown, and in 1939 the North Carolina General Assembly chartered the Raleigh–Durham Aeronautical Authority to build and operate a larger airport between Raleigh and Durham. This was promoted by Eastern Air Lines, led by then chairman Eddie Rickenbacker.

The new Raleigh–Durham Airport opened on May 1, 1943, with flights by Eastern Airlines. The passenger terminal was built from materials remaining after the construction of four barracks for the Army Air Forces Air Technical Service Command airfield. The three runways the airport had in 1951 are still visible on the southeast side of the airport: 4500-ft runway 5, 4500-ft runway 18 and 4490-ft runway 14.

After World War II, Capital Airlines joined Eastern at RDU; Piedmont Airlines arrived in 1948. The original Terminal 1 building was constructed in 1955, that previously served as a temporary structure for barracks for the prior United States Army air field. The April 1957 Official Airline Guide shows 36 departures a day: twenty Eastern, eight Capital and eight Piedmont. Nonstop flights did not reach beyond Washington, Atlanta, or the Appalachians (but Eastern started a Super Constellation nonstop to Newark in 1958). The next airline (aside from United's takeover of Capital in 1961) was Delta Air Lines in 1970. In April 1969, nonstops didn't reach beyond New York or Atlanta, and Chicago was the only nonstop west of the Appalachians. RDU's first scheduled jets were Eastern 727s in 1965.

Like many airports in the southern United States, it was operated as segregated facility with separate waiting areas for "White" and "Colored" people. It was later desegregated in the 1960s in response to protests by students at local universities.

In the 1970s, the last decade before airline deregulation, Piedmont connected RDU to the North Carolina cities of Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, New Bern, Rocky Mount, Winston-Salem, and Wilmington. It also connected to Norfolk, Virginia; Richmond, Virginia; and Washington, among others. United flew to Asheville, Charlotte, Huntsville, and Newark, while Eastern flew to Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, and Washington, and Delta flew to Chicago and Greensboro.

After deregulation, Allegheny Airlines arrived in 1979, Trans World Airlines in 1984, and by 1985 American Airlines, Ozark Air Lines, People Express, New York Air and Pan Am had all put in appearances.

Terminal 1, previously known as Terminal A, was first opened in 1982. Runway 5L/23R was completed in 1986.

Hub years

American Airlines (AA) built a terminal at RDU between 1985 and 1987 to house a new hub, and flew to 38 cities when the hub started in June 1987. The December 1987 timetable shows AA nonstops to 36 airports and American Eagle prop nonstops to 18 more. In 1988, the first international destination was Paris-Orly with AA. Caribbean destinations started in 1989, with routes to Bermuda, Cancún, St. Croix and St. Thomas. The RDU hub operated at a loss even during its heyday in the early 1990s, like the hub AA had at Nashville. AA's December 1992 timetable, around the time of the hub's peak, showed 211 daily departures to 64 destinations, almost all in the eastern United States (the westernmost destinations being AA's hubs at Dallas/Fort Worth and Chicago–O'Hare). The hub faced intense competition from Delta and Eastern in Atlanta, Northwest in Memphis, and from USAir in Charlotte, as well as the short-lived Continental hub in Greensboro that opened in 1993. AA began to consider closing the hub in late 1993. AA started serving London-Gatwick and discontinuing the Paris flight in 1994. The London route was originally launched based on a purchasing commitment from GlaxoSmithKline, which has major offices at both ends of the route; the route is no longer dependent on GSK for revenue. AA operations were reduced until June 1995 when they closed the hub. After the hub closure, the airport brought in four new airlines: Air South, Continental Airlines, ValuJet and Midway Airlines. In 1996, Air Canada became the airport's first international carrier with service to Toronto. Canadian Regional Airlines also started service to Toronto in 1997. Other brief international airports served via AA between late 1980s and mid 1990s include Grand Cayman, Nassau, and Saint Maarten.

Midway Airlines replaced AA as the airport's hub carrier from 1995 until 2003. In 1995, Midway had flights to Boston, Hartford, Long Island, Newark, in the Northeast; and to Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa and West Palm Beach in Florida. They also served Cancún. AA subleased its gates at RDU to Midway in order to repay $113 million in AA-guaranteed bonds that had been used to construct the hub facilities. Midway suspended service for some time after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and ceased operations in 2002, filing for bankruptcy in 2003. US Airways Club opened in 2001. The United Service Organizations opened a lounge in 2004.