Thursday, August 25, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

FULL FLIGHTS: Airport flying high

July passenger count nearly hits 4 million, on record pace

A jet lands Wednesday at McCarran International Airport, which had a 7.9 percent rise in passengers last month over July 2004. Photo by Craig L. Moran. Planes wait in line to depart Tuesday. Low-cost carriers reported the largest increases in passenger numbers. Photo by John Gurzinski. Click image for enlargement.

McCarran International fell a few crowded 747s short of eclipsing the 4 million passenger mark for the first time in July, but traffic continues to climb at a rapid pace.

July's passenger count, which includes all arrivals and outbound travelers, was more than 3.99 million, a 7.9 percent jump from a year ago and the best monthly total in McCarran's 57-year history, the Clark County Aviation Department said Wednesday.

Aided by new gates, new carriers and increasing interest in Las Vegas, the year-to-date tally of 25.8 million passengers was 7.1 percent better than last year's pace, when McCarran hosted nearly 41.5 million passengers, a 12-month record.

If this year's pace continues through December, more than 44 million air travelers will pass through McCarran in 2005.

"It's more of the same from last year. Everyone is growing to meet the demand," Aviation Director Randall Walker said Wednesday. "I'm sure we'll break that (4 million monthly passenger) number before the year ends."

New federal data shows few major U.S. airports are growing as quickly.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics two weeks ago released a report on the nation's aviation industry, including a list of the country's busiest airports.

Though its report did not consider international travelers and covered only January through May, the bureau said McCarran has become the country's fifth-busiest airport.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, which is Delta Air Lines' major hub, hosted nearly 16.2 million outbound domestic passengers in that span, followed by Chicago O'Hare, United's key hub, at 12.3 million, and Dallas-Forth Worth International, American Airlines' base, at 10.1 million.

Los Angeles International, which serves the country's second-largest metropolitan area and is a key gateway from the Pacific Rim, ranked fourth in the report, with 8.4 million passengers through May.

Close on its heels was McCarran, whose 8.33 million count represented a 6.2 percent gain vs. the first five months of 2004, the bureau said. Only Florida's Orlando International Airport (9.3 percent) and Michigan's Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (7.1 percent) grew at faster rates, though neither was within 1.5 million passengers of McCarran's comparable five-month total.

Tom Parsons, whose Web site Bestfares.com helps travelers seek inexpensive airline tickets, called Las Vegas "a hot commodity for the John Q. Traveler."

He said low-cost packages intended to keep hotel rooms filled frequently drive down airfares to Southern Nevada. That trend favors low-fare carriers, which operate on tighter profit margins than more-established carriers such as American, United or Delta.

"It's no a surprise to me that the legacy airlines have either stayed status quo or decreased their traffic to Las Vegas," said Parsons, who is Bestfares.com's chief executive officer. "They've learned across America that it's going to be difficult for them to compete and make money on routes served by low-cost carriers."

Instead, legacy carriers are focusing more on overseas routes, where reduced competition translates to higher ticket prices and increased revenue, he said.

Walker agreed, saying low-cost carriers such as Southwest and America West, as well as smaller players such as AirTran, Independence Air, JetBlue Airways and Frontier, are driving local growth while larger carriers hold steady, or shift planes elsewhere.

Walker downplayed McCarran's fifth place on the national list, saying he prefers year-end rankings that don't include seasonal variations.

McCarran in mid-April opened the $125 million, 11-gate northeast wing of the D-gates concourse. Its addition allows for approximately 3.1 million more passengers per year.

That extra space has already come into play, allowing local carriers to add new routes or grow existing ones, Walker said.