Las Vegas airport passenger traffic remains sluggish in August

More than 4.5 million passengers flew to and from Harry Reid International Airport in August, but that total was still 8.5 percent below the number of passengers a year earlier, airport officials said Wednesday.

Clark County Department of Aviation officials also said Spirit Airlines, which had been the airport’s second busiest commercial air carrier for months, saw the number of passengers nearly cut in half from August 2024.

Florida-based Spirit, currently operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, confirmed this week that it is furloughing 1,800 flight attendants in a cost-cutting move. Reid airport’s No. 3 passenger carrier (behind Southwest and Delta) had 409,886 passengers in August, a 46.3 percent decline from a year earlier. Over the past eight months, Spirit traffic has fallen 32 percent to 3.6 million passengers.

Spirit isn’t the only airline that has trimmed Las Vegas operations.

Houston-based Avelo Airlines, which had a limited Las Vegas schedule to Sonoma, California, and Redmond and Salem, Oregon, announced in July that it would discontinue its Las Vegas schedule in August. In addition, Avelo said it would abandon its six other West Coast operations in December, but it has since moved up that transition.

In August Avelo served 5,048 passengers in Las Vegas, a 48.9 percent decline from a year earlier.

Avelo CEO Andrew Levy, a former Allegiant Air executive, indicated the airline opted to move its jets to other routes as it transitions away from its West Coast hub at Hollywood Burbank Airport in California. Avelo has struggled financially, partially as a result of customer boycotts against the company for partnering with the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide charter flights to assist in President Donald Trump’s deportation initiatives.

Earlier in the week, Avelo announced it was scratching its West Coast flights two months early, ending service on Oct. 20, preferring to focus on the East Coast, where it has numerous operations through New Haven, Connecticut, Wilmington, Delaware, and Charlotte, North Carolina, and flights to 11 Florida airports.

Breeze picking up routes

Meanwhile, another small discount carrier says it will pick up some of the routes abandoned by Avelo.

Cottonwood Heights, Utah-based Breeze Airways, founded by David Neeleman, the man who co-founded JetBlue Airways in 2000, said it would take over some of the dropped Avelo routes and already has launched Las Vegas service to and from Redmond.

While passenger declines at Reid airport are more pronounced for domestic routes, international travel also continues to lag.

Traffic on foreign routes was off 3.7 percent to 282,793 in August, taking the eight-month total to 2.4 million, down 2 percent from a year earlier.

Travel to and from Canada, the airport’s largest foreign market, continued to be sluggish in August since Trump’s announcement of tariffs and remarks about making Canada the 51st U.S. state.

Canadian discount airline WestJet, the busiest international carrier at Reid airport, served 46,593 passengers in August, down 33.9 percent from a year earlier but up 5.2 percent from July. Air Canada, the No. 4 foreign carrier, flew 31,012 passengers in August, down 40 percent from a year earlier and 20.9 percent from July.

Another Canadian carrier, Porter Airlines, flew 14,311 passengers in August, down 0.6 percent from July, but up 89.3 percent from August 2024 when it was new to the market.

The largest percentage increases in traffic came from KLM (up 46.6 percent from a year earlier to 16,379 passengers) and Korean Airlines (up 38.8 percent to 15,559 passengers).

Scenic helicopters suffer

The decline in international traffic also has contributed to a downturn in another segment of Reid passenger results.

Passenger totals were down 9.7 percent to 74,366 for westside terminal traffic where scenic helicopter tours originate.

Passenger totals for Maverick Helicopters, the largest of Reid’s scenic helicopter companies, were down 18.6 percent from August 2024. Scenic charters along the Strip and to Grand Canyon are among the attractions international arrivals enjoy when visiting Las Vegas.

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