How to Navigate and Get Around Charlotte Douglas International Airport

The Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, in Charlotte, North Carolina, is one of the nation's busiest. It is a major hub for U.S. Airways. Although it is relatively easy to simply walk between any of the airport's five concourses from your arriving flight to your connecting flight, a first timer may feel somewhat confused. These steps are designed for passengers arriving and departing the Charlotte airport on connecting flights or arriving in Charlotte as their destination.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Boarding pass or ticket for your flight
• ID

1. There are five main concourses in addition to the main terminal (where ticketing, check in, security, baggage claim, and ground transportation are located). Each Concourse is designated by a letter: A, B, C, D, or E. Each of the five concourses radiate outward from a central atrium and food court on the secured side of the terminal.
2. Many passengers arriving and departing on connecting flights will be on U.S. Airways and U.S. Airways Express, as Charlotte is a hub for this airline. U.S. Airways operates out of Concourses B, C, and D, and U.S. Airways Express out of Concourse E. Other airlines operate out of Concourses A and D: Concourse A serves Air Canada, Air Tran Airways, American Airlines and American Eagle, Continental Airlines and Continental Express, Delta Airlines and Delta Connection, Midwest Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Northwest Airlink, and United Airlines and United Express; Concourse D serves Lufthansa and JetBlue Airways.
3. On your arriving flight, a flight attendant should announce the gate and concourse that the flight is arriving at. It is important to remember this. When you exit the jetway into the airport, you can find a monitor listing departures to find your connecting flight and gate number. If your connecting flight is departing out of a different concourse, follow the signs directing you to that concourse. Except for walking between Concourses D and E, you will always have to walk through the central atrium and food court when walking between concourses.
4. If you have a longer layover between connecting flights you may want to spend time in the airport's central atrium, which has many rocking chairs, large glass windows for viewing airport activity (particularly between concourses B and C), a grand piano, and many restaurants and retail shops.
5. If Charlotte is your final destination, upon exiting the jetway into the airport, follow the signs directing you toward the baggage claim area. You will have to walk through the central atrium and food court, and then descend one level, to arrive at the baggage claim area. Ground transportation is just outside the baggage claim area.