McCarran’s traffic surpasses 32M passengers

Passenger traffic was up for the 10th straight month at McCarran International Airport and international arrivals again provided the biggest boost.

The Clark County Aviation Department on Monday reported September traffic up 2.7 percent, to 3.6 million passengers. McCarran’s counts at the end of three quarters is now up 2.4 percent, to 32.4 million.

International arrivals were up 13.8 percent to 296,189 passengers for the month and four of McCarran’s top five domestic carriers showed increases for the month.

Southwest Airlines had one of its best monthly performances of the year with a 7.1 percent month-over-month increase to 1.4 million passengers while deep-discounter Spirit Airlines slid into the No. 5 slot among domestic air carriers with 208,214 passengers for the month.

Through end of 2014’s third quarter, Southwest has flown 12.8 million passengers to Las Vegas, 2.3 percent ahead of last year’s pace, and Spirit is at 1.7 million passengers, 12.9 percent more than last year.

Domestic passenger counts were up 1.8 percent for the month and 1.7 percent for three quarters.

McCarran also had a 3.7 percent increase in air tour flights and helicopter excursions in September.

But again, international arrivals provided the biggest percentage increase for the month.

Canadian and Latin American airlines provided the biggest boost for the month with double-digit-percentage increases from Mexico’s Interjet and Aeromexico, Panama’s Copa Airlines and Canada’s Air Canada and WestJet. Mexican discounter Volaris had an 8.1 percent increase.

Most of the Asian and European carriers had slight declines in traffic in September compared with a year ago. Korean Air counts were off 4.8 percent, to 5,340 passengers, Virgin Atlantic fell 1.8 percent, to 33,228 passengers, and British Airways was down 0.3 percent, to 26,251.

McCarran’s No. 3 domestic carrier, Delta Air Lines, showed a 13.5 percent decline to 289,477 passengers for the month as a result of fewer flights and the use of smaller aircraft on its routes. After three quarters, Delta’s passenger counts are down 7.8 percent, to 2.7 million.

Traffic for Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air, the No. 6 domestic carrier at the airport, fell 4.4 percent to 155,476 passengers.

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