Spirit’s financial woes putting a dent in Reid passenger counts

Spirit Airlines’ financial woes continued to take its toll on Harry Reid International Airport passenger counts in September with the number of arriving and departing travelers down around the same number the discount air carrier is off from a year ago.

Reid reported a passenger total of 4.5 million for the month, a 6.4 percent decline from a year ago. Spirit, the Florida-based ultra-low-cost airline now struggling through its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing this year, had a 45.8 percent decline in passengers to 367,625 in September.

The 310,574 dip in Spirit passengers compares with the 312,214 decline in passengers for the month.

Spirit has cut routes dramatically systemwide and airline officials said Friday they would consider selling planes to help make the company more financially viable. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company said it is investigating a sale or merger with another airline.

Two airlines — JetBlue Airways and Frontier Airlines — in the past have discussed plans to acquire Spirit, but it’s unclear now whether Spirit would get regulatory approval to merge with another airline.

Reid’s passenger numbers were off 6.1 percent on domestic flights and 13.5 percent on international. For the first three quarters of 2025, domestic passenger numbers are down 4.9 percent to 38.1 million, while international numbers are off 3.3 percent to 2.6 million.

Southwest Airlines continues to be the dominant domestic carrier, bringing 1.8 million passengers to and from Las Vegas in September, a 5.5 percent increase over September 2024. Delta Air Lines now ranks No. 2 (425,014 passengers, down 2.1 percent from last year), followed by Spirit, United (359,666, up 5.4 percent) and American (357,789, down 5.3 percent).

On the international side, Air Canada leads with 43,553 passengers, down 18.4 percent from a year ago, followed by Canadian discounter Westjet (40,566, down 44.3 percent), British Airways (31,677, up 9.5 percent) and Mexican discount airlines Vivaaerobus (28,948, up 28.5 percent) and Volaris (26,572, down 9.3 percent).

The biggest percentage changes on international flights was KLM, which offers nonstop routes to and from Amsterdam, up 46.8 percent to 13,261, with Canada’s Porter Airlines down 45.9 percent to 7,028 passengers.

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