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Wednesday, September 19, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

MCCARRAN INTERNATIONAL: Airport at 93 percent

Airline flight reductions having little effect on traffic into, out of Las Vegas

McCarran International Airport is operating at about 93 percent of its normal flight schedule, indicating that most of the airlines have not reduced service to Las Vegas, an airport official said Tuesday.

"Every day is a little bit better," said Hilarie Grey, spokeswoman for McCarran.

She said there were 838 commercial air carrier operations on Monday, compared with an average of 900 flights a day before last week's attacks.

There was no report on load factors, or how full the planes were.

Southwest Airlines, the No. 1 carrier at McCarran with 10.3 million passengers in 2000, plans to fly a full schedule in Las Vegas, which would be about 170 flights.

"I think it's important for our customers to know we're operating our entire fleet of more than 355 aircraft and our entire schedule of 2,700 flights," said Kristin Nelson, spokeswoman for Dallas-based Southwest.

Several major airlines have announced reduced schedules by as much as 20 percent, but so far the cancellations to Las Vegas have been minimal.

Continental Airlines, for example, terminated service to 10 cities from its hubs in Cleveland, Houston and Newark, N.J., but none of the flights were to Las Vegas.

America West, the No. 2 carrier in Las Vegas, canceled flights to Cleveland, San Francisco, Washington Reagan National (which remains closed), Palm Springs, Calif., and two to New York JFK effective Monday.

It further canceled flights to Minneapolis Tuesday, Milwaukee beginning Thursday and Phoenix beginning Sunday.

The National Business Travel Association issued a statement Tuesday calling for immediate government aid for the nation's aviation industry in response to the crippling effect of last week's terrorist attacks and aviation shutdown.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing today on legislation that could provide up to $24 billion in grants, loans and tax relief to the airline industry.

It is estimated that since last week, the airline industry has lost more than $1 billion from reduced consumer demand, the costly two-day grounding, and higher expenses to comply with new safety regulations.

In the past few days, several airlines have announced reduced service and significant layoffs as a result. The Air Transport Association states that as many as 100,000 layoffs are likely among the nation's leading airlines.

"Our air transportation system is critical not only to the overall American economy, but also specifically to Nevada, since our state's economy depends so greatly on tourism," said Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev. "Securing the airline industry is vital to ensuring Nevada's prosperity."

An estimated 46 percent of Las Vegas' 36 million annual visitors arrive by air, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.