WestJet first foreign airline to carry 1 million annual passengers at McCarran

It’s official: Canada’s WestJet crossed the threshold of being the first foreign airline to carry more than 1 million passengers in and out of McCarran International Airport in one year.

According to the official count released Wednesday, WestJet’s final total was 1,019,942 passengers last year, up 4.6 percent from 2012. Although the trend lines and advance bookings showed ahead of time that WestJet would hit the mark in late December, nobody wanted to officially declare the mission accomplished the hard numbers were in.

WestJet took the occasion to announce a schedule expansion for the summer starting in June, including twice-a-week flights to Victoria, British Columbia, and Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This will effectively extend what has been cold season service to year-round.

In addition, Edmonton, Alberta, will go from 10 to 14 flights a week, and Calgary, Alberta, will go from 14 to 20 flights a week. Fort McMurray, Alberta, will get nonstop flights for the first time at twice a week.

All told, the weekly summer flight count will rise compared to last year by 18 to 76.

“I am elated to see WestJet become our first international airline partner to exceed one million passengers and I am even more excited about the additional service it will offer to and from Canada in 2014,” said Rosemary Vassiliadis, director of the Clark County Department of Aviation.