Passenger activity at McCarran International continued its upward trend in August with 4 percent more people using the city’s airport than in August 2010.
McCarran officials said today that 3.6 million passengers arrived and departed from the airport in August, bringing the eight-month total to 27.7 million, a 3.9 percent increase over the same period a year earlier.
International arrivals and departures continued to spark monthly results with 223,057 passengers – a 26.7 percent increase over the previous year – arriving from foreign countries.
Local market leader Southwest Airlines continued to dominate McCarran’s landscape in August with 1.4 million passengers. While the monthly total was flat from August 2010, Southwest’s year-to-date total of 10.7 million passengers is up 2 percent over the previous year.
US Airways showed a 15.5 percent spike to 217,398 passengers for the month, but the trend isn’t likely to continue since the Tempe, Ariz.-based airline earlier this month announced a 40 percent cutback in Las Vegas flights through early 2012.
Other big gainers in passenger counts for August were Spirit Airlines, up 226.2 percent to 104,628 passengers, WestJet, up 35.1 percent to 65,408 passengers, and JetBlue, up 29.1 percent to 99,690. In each case, the results were higher because of additional flights.
Among the major carriers in the market, Continental passenger counts were up 10 percent to 184,616 and American was up 7.4 percent to 215,912. American has added 13.8 percent more flights to the Las Vegas market since last year while United Airlines, which saw a 28.5 percent decline in passengers, is adjusting its schedules in its merger with Continental.
Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air had a 3.2 percent decline in passengers in August, but over eight months, the airline is up 2.5 percent over the previous year.
While the international surge has come mostly from WestJet’s increased lift to Las Vegas, only four of 14 airlines with scheduled international service showed declines compared with August 2010. Of the 10 that were up, seven had double-digit percentage increases and two were new carriers to the market.
The biggest percentage increases came from Aeromexico (57.4 percent), Condor (44.8 percent), WestJet, British Airways (26.3 percent) and Air Canada (26 percent). Nine of the 14 international carriers have double- or triple-digit percentage increases year over year.
The four carriers that had declines include Korean Airlines (down 5.3 percent for the month and 3.2 percent for the year), Vivaaerobus (down 16.4 percent and 39.1 percent), XL Airways France (down 13.5 percent and 0.6 percent) and Mexicana, which discontinued service earlier this year.