Las Vegas airport reported largest monthly decline of passengers this year

Harry Reid International Airport had its steepest passenger decline since January 2021, the Clark County Department of Aviation reported Wednesday.

Airport officials said the number of passengers served fell 8.2 percent to 4.9 million, but that was compared with October 2024, which had the second-highest passenger count in the airport’s history.

A major drop in passengers from Canada and the continued financial struggles of discount Spirit Airlines were mostly responsible for the month’s fall-off in passengers.

The two largest Canadian air carriers, discounter WestJet and flag-carrier Air Canada, had passenger declines from October 2024 of 33.2 percent and 26.3 percent, respectively.

Florida-based Spirit, which is under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saw its passenger counts drop by 61.2 percent from October 2024.

Spirit, which in 2024 was Las Vegas’ second-busiest commercial air carrier, is now the No. 6 domestic operator at Reid. Spirit recently removed dozens of flights from its schedule, including several between Las Vegas and California destinations.

This year through October, the number of passengers who flew through Reid was down 5.1 percent from the same 10-month stretch last year, to 46.3 million.

Domestic passenger figures slid 5.2 percent to 42.6 million, while international arrivals and departures fell 4.5 percent to 2.9 million.

Even though the total number of passengers is down, Reid’s top four carriers showed increases in October from a year ago.

Market leader Southwest Airlines eclipsed 2 million passengers in a month at Reid for the first time in history, with its October tally up 6.6 percent.

Other gains weren’t as dramatic, with Delta Air Lines up 0.1 percent to 476,322; American Airlines up 0.4 percent to 415,070; and United Airlines climbing 2.6 percent to 409,749 passengers.

Internationally, Korean Air showed a 30.2 percent increase to 15,464, while European and Mexican carriers held their own. Another Canadian operator, Porter Airlines, had passenger counts fall 22 percent to 10,528 for the month.

The westside charter terminals and helicopter air tour operators were down 8.1 percent from October 2024 with 94,308 arrivals and departures.

Within that, Atlantic Aviation passenger numbers were up 16 percent, but there were double-digit percentage declines for Maverick, 5-Star and Papillon air tour operations.

For the 10 months of 2025, westside and helicopter air tours were flat at 788,318 passengers.

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