Las Vegas airport’s October passenger load 2nd highest month ever

The second-highest number of monthly passengers in history passed through Harry Reid International Airport’s gates in October.

The Clark County Department of Aviation on Tuesday reported 5.3 million passengers used Las Vegas’ airport that month.

The highest passenger totals each year come in October. This year’s total was 3.5 percent less than in October 2023, the all-time monthly record with 5.5 million passengers.

Last year’s total beat the previous high of 5.2 million passengers in October 2022.

Tourism experts say that October is a prime time for conventions and conferences because temperatures have cooled from the summer months. The beginning of the month saw the arrival of the Global Gaming Expo, an the end of the month featured the arrival of the Specialty Equipment Market Association, an automobile industry trade show that has grown to become Southern Nevada’s largest convention event, with more than 100,000 people attending Automotive Aftermarket Week events.

There also were two home Raiders games against Pittsburgh and Kansas City that drew fans to the city and several entertainment residencies, including the Eagles at the Sphere.

Because of the tough comparison with last year’s all-time record, many figures were down from a year ago.

Domestic passenger totals of 4.8 million were down 4.4 percent from last year, but international traffic was up 8.3 percent to 341,390 from a year ago. The airport’s west-side general aviation terminals and helicopter tours were up 7.5 percent to 102,638 from last year.

For the first 10 months of 2024, domestic traffic is up 1.1 percent to 44.9 million, international is up 13.3 percent to 3.1 million, but west-side helicopter traffic is down 3.5 percent to 795,438. Overall passenger traffic is up 1.7 percent from last year to 48.8 million.

Four of the top five scheduled airlines serving Reid showed declines from a year ago.

Market leader Southwest Airlines had 1.9 million passengers, down 4.4 percent from a year ago. Spirit Airlines was off 5.3 percent to 761,778, Delta Air Lines was down 8.3 percent to 439,609, and American Airlines was off 1.5 percent to 413,609. No. 5 United Airlines was up 3.1 percent to 399,528.

Among international carriers, Canadian discounter WestJet had the highest number with 88,711, down 2.7 percent from October 2023. Canadian flag-carrier Air Canada was next with 61,088, up 16.5 percent.

The busiest overseas carrier was British Airways with 30,699, up 9.3 percent.

The newest overseas air carrier, Aer Lingus, which inaugurated nonstop flights to and from Dublin, had 1,230 passengers for the month.

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