Free WiFi service is coming to Raleigh-Durham International Airport this summer. 

Boingo, which provides wireless internet service at 60 American airports, will start by July giving RDU travelers the option to use free wifi that includes advertising and might not be robust enough, during busy periods, to support streaming video and other heavy use.  Business travelers and other power users will still be able to pay for guaranteed high-bandwidth internet service. [4/20/12 update: More details and reader comments in today's story.]

Between 10,000 and 20,000 RDU travelers now pay $7.99 for a 24-hour session through RDU’s current wifi provider, AT&T.  RDU officials expect the free option will increase the number of users by 10 to 12 percent.

Here’s how the new service will work: ... [MORE]

Frequently the folks who add their clever comments to online stories disagree on absolutely everything -- whether Barack Obama is a Muslim, or whether the sun rose this morning -- whether or not it has anything to do with the news story itself.

Today, though, there is a nearly unanimous chorus of jubilation in the comments about this morning's news: RDU airport will get its first daily nonstop to the West Coast in a long time starting on the morning of Aug. 15, when a United Airlines Boeing 737 takes off for San Francisco.

As a silicon valley startup (uservoice) who's just opened an office in downtown Raleigh this is GREAT news! It removes the only major issue we've had with growing our team in NC. - Richard White

Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!! I live in both San Francisco (I work for a Silicon Valley startup) and Durham, and y'all've just made my day! - Alex Leviton  ... [MORE]

Some travelers will pay more to park their cars at Raleigh-Durham International Airport starting Monday, when the daily parking garage fee rises from $10 to $12.

Other parking rates will not change, RDU said: $2 per hour in the daily section of the garage (where $12 is the new daily maximum), $1 per hour in the hourly section of the garage ($24 per day maximum), and $6 per day in the park-and-ride lots.

Parking provides RDU's biggest single source of revenues.  The rate increase will help the publicly owned airport pay for the $570 million Terminal 2 and for a planned overhaul of Terminal 1.  The daily rate was increased to $10 in 2004.

Three dozen departing flights from Raleigh-Durham International Airport were delayed this morning on one of the busiest travel days of the year, after a false alarm in an airport authority computer triggered a shutdown of the jet refueling system. [Updated 10:30 a.m.]

The computer error at 4:30 a.m. was corrected and the fuel system was operating properly by 6:30 a.m., but the backup caused continuing delays of 15 to 60 minutes for departures as late as 9 a.m., airport spokeswoman Mindy Hamlin said.

Southwest Airlines flights were able to get their fuel from trucks and were not delayed, but all other airlines were affected, Hamlin said.

“Our computer system told us there was an emergency so it shut the fueling system down as a safety precaution,” Hamlin said. “There was no emergency. Then we had to reboot the system, and that process takes time.”

The action halted the flow from the airport’s fuel farm to the terminal gates where parked jets receive their fuel.  An estimated 26,000 to 27,000 travelers will fly in or out of RDU today.

“We had many flight delays this morning. We still have some delays that are showing on the board, just a few,” Hamlin said at 9 a.m.  “It’s that ripple effect that happens when things get off line.”

RDU Airport is the nation's best airport for wireless Internet service -- even if travelers have to pay for the privilege -- PCWorld magazine reported today.

In a larger article rating airports for qualities prized by tech-savvy travelers, the magazine complained that WiFi download speeds at most U.S. airports are painfully slow, less than 2 megabits per second. RDU topped the magazine's Top 10 list with a respectable average speed of 13.62 mbps.

Some travelers have lobbied RDU to join other U.S. airports that provide free WiFi service for passengers waiting to board their flights.  RDU charges $7.49 per 24 hours for its service, provided through AT&T. (The magazine's main article incorrectly said RDU service is free.) ... [MORE]

Southwest Airlines will start once-a-day flights between RDU Airport and Houston's Hobby Airport on June 3, RDU says.

The flight will depart RDU at 4:20pm, arriving at Houston at 6:05pm.  The return flight leaves Houston at 1:20pm and arrives at RDU at 5pm.

Houston will become the 12th destination city for Southwest service from RDU.  Teresa Damiano, RDU deputy airport director, said Houston will give RDU travelers an alternative connection to key West Coast cities.

Vision Airlines, a low-cost carrier recently evicted from an Arkansas airport for unpaid bills, will launch twice-weekly nonstop service Friday from Raleigh-Durham International Airport to Grand Bahama Island.

The Monday and Friday evening flights to the Freeport airport will use Boeing 737 jets.

Vision, based in Suwanee, Ga., was forced to halt service from Little Rock National Airport in Arkansas last month in a dispute over more than $50,000 in unpaid fees.  John C. Brantley, the RDU airport director, said he has taken steps to minimize RDU’s risk in dealing with Vision Airlines.

“They were in three or four airports where they pulled out fairly quickly,” Brantley said. “Their track record certainly is not the best in the world, so we have gone to the extreme to make sure we were protected from any potential default on their part.”

He said Vision will operate through a contract with Raleigh-based Charter Express, an established tenant at RDU. ... [MORE]

John C. Brantley and Raleigh-Durham International Airport have found it hard to say good-bye to each other, and the RDU board this week persuaded Brantley to stay a few months longer as airport director.

Brantley announced in March that he would retire July 31 from the job he has held since 1982. But board members don’t want to appoint a temporary replacement, and they asked him to stay until they hired a permanent successor.

“He’s flexible, and we certainly want to minimize any gap in leadership,” Terry Yeargan of Willow Spring, the RDU Authority board chairman, said today. “We agreed it would be good if he stayed on through the fall.” ... [MORE]

The Transportation Security Administration plans a software upgrade for its full-body scanner machines at 40 airports including Raleigh-Durham International, to get rid of the explicit video images that have drawn complaints about personal privacy.

The millimeter wave imaging machines now used at RDU and many airports produce a silvery image of the traveler's skin -- with detailed, intimate body outlines. TSA says the image is viewed only by a security officer isolated in a nearby room, but many travelers have objected.  Some say they'd rather undergo intimate body pat-downs than submit to the body scanners.

[7/21/11 update: ACLU welcomes the change. See today's story.]

The new software will display a generic, cookie-cutter outline of a human body, marked to show the location of anything that warrants a closer look ... [ MORE]

As a huge storm of snow and ice covers much of the Midwest and Northeast, more than 40 RDU flights to Chicago, New York and other cities have been scrubbed so far today.

Most of the cancellations posted online were scheduled before noon.

Expect more cancellations this morning and later in the day as snow and ice pile up on airport runways elsewhere in the country -- while the Triangle enjoys an unseasonably warm, damp day. The RDU temperature at 6:45 a.m. was 64 degrees.

Check your airline. Check RDU's flight status page.