Another 100 delays seen from Las Vegas flights

Airline punctuality showed no sign of improvement Wednesday at McCarran International Airport.

The day started well, with only 20 delays between midnight and noon, according to the data service flightstats.com. But the problems grew to the point where nearly 100 flights were expected to be late by midnight, almost the same number as on Monday and Tuesday.

The April schedule at McCarran shows an average of 460 daily departures. Flightstats.com tracked departures from Las Vegas based on the time the planes hit the gate at their destinations. However, it did not give reasons for the delays.

Eleven of the delays ran at least an hour.

Many of the late flights went to California, the state with the largest number of Las Vegas flights, particularly in the Los Angeles areas. The geographic spread included Denver, Detroit, New York, Tampa and Boston.

Attention on the nation’s airports continued as thousands of air traffic controllers were forced to take furloughs because of budget cuts. Chicago and New York City were the hardest hit Wednesday. Other airports with delays were Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Boston.

Airlines and members of Congress have urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to reduce spending.

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., urged the FAA to find other ways to save money and avert furloughs, which he said will cause “substantial disruptions” to Las Vegas travel.

Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Tim O’Reiley and Stephens Washington Bureau Steve Tetreault contributed to this report.