Uh-oh, Canada: International air traffic tumbles at Las Vegas airport

Passenger air traffic tumbled in May from a year ago with international arrivals down 8.7 percent for the month, Harry Reid International Airport reported Thursday.

While May 2024 traffic was one of the busiest months in the airport’s history, a major drop in international arrivals — particularly from Canada — made for a tough comparison to this year’s count.

Airport officials said nearly 5 million passengers arrived and departed from Las Vegas’ primary airport in May, down 3.9 percent from a year ago. Domestic traffic was off 3.7 percent to 4.6 million while international arrivals and departures were at 303,481.

Within the international traffic, the airport reported Air Canada passengers were down 21.7 percent to 41,577 passengers while discounter WestJet fell 34.6 percent to 61,219.

May was expected to be the first month of possible passenger declines due to Canadian consumer dissatisfaction with the proposed annexation of the country as the 51st U.S. state by President Donald Trump and ongoing debates over tariffs.

Double-digit percentage increases in passengers were recorded by Virgin Atlantic, Korean Air and KLM for the month.

Domestic traffic also was off for the month with No. 2 domestic operator Spirit Airlines down 27.3 percent to 511,763 passengers. The busiest domestic operator, Southwest Airlines, had a 1.9 percent increase to nearly 2 million passengers.

For the first five months of 2025, arriving and departing passengers at Reid are down 3.7 percent to 22.9 million, with domestic travel down 4 percent to 21 million, but international counts are up 0.2 percent to 1.5 million passengers.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.