Las Vegas airport hopes American will grow here with Reno Air deal

Tuesday, Aug. 31, 1999 | 11:28 a.m.

As the public bid farewell to Reno Air on Monday, some aviation experts say American Airlines' integration of the carrier will have a positive impact on Las Vegas.

American completed the integration process today as part of the airline's $124 million acquisition of the Reno-based carrier that was announced in November.

Fort Worth, Texas-based American bought Reno Air to regain its foothold in the West Coast market, which had slipped since the airline pulled out of San Jose, Calif.

In Las Vegas the acquisition means more than a doubling of the number of flights the nation's second-largest air carrier offers in absorbing Reno Air's 23 daily flights.

American spokesman Tim Kincaid said the airline now operates 38 round-trip flights to eight cities from Las Vegas. American previously operated 15 daily flights between McCarran International Airport and Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago's O'Hare International airports.

When it absorbed Reno Air's schedule, American picked up 23 flights between McCarran and Reno; Oklahoma City; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and San Jose and Orange County, Calif. American also added Reno Air's Los Angeles flights.

Another dramatic change for Las Vegas is the movement of Reno Air's facilities. Reno Air operated from McCarran's A gates in the main concourse. Now the operation has shifted to the year-old D gates. Reno Air has closed its ticket counter and integrated employees into American's slots.

American has stationed some additional personnel at the airport to direct passengers to the right gates, particularly those who have come into Las Vegas on Reno Air flights and will leave on American. The airline said reservations on Reno Air have automatically transferred over to American as of today.

"It's a communications challenge that we're up for," Kincaid said. "We have a number of good signs, banners and people there to direct customers to the right place."

Joanne Smith, who until today was senior vice president of marketing for Reno Air, said 99 percent of Reno Air's employees, including those stationed in Las Vegas, stayed on with American through the transition. Smith said Las Vegas may have even more jobs available because some employees took transfers to Dallas and other American stations.

The airlines did not have an exact count on the number of employees based at the airport in Las Vegas.

The 400 employees of Reno Air's reservation center at McCarran Crossing also were part of the American transition.

Kincaid said the company elected to keep the reservation center open, even though it would be the smallest in American's system.

"We're bringing in 180 new flights a day to the system," Kincaid said. "We need the capacity to book reservations on those new flights. It worked out better for us to absorb the Reno Air center than to expand at another location and recruit 400 people. The people at the Las Vegas center are good at what they do."

American is calling it the Las Vegas Reservation Office (LVRO) and it will be supervised by branch manager Sally Gilroy-Roff, who was a domestic sales manager in American's reservations center in Cary, N.C.

Kincaid said American will modify the LVRO to bring it up to the company's standards. In addition to installing ergonomic work stations, employees have had to train for a different type of computer system. Kincaid explained that both airlines operated a SABRE reservation system, but each airline had slightly different systems.

The city of Reno is bearing the brunt of the transition. Not only is the city losing a carrier that adopted its name, it's losing about 200 administrative jobs from the company's headquarters.

Smith said about 95 percent of the administrators were offered positions at other stations, most of them in Dallas.

"These are in the areas of revenue accounting, human resources, finance and information technology," Smith said. "All those areas were duplicated, so most of the employees at the airline's headquarters are moving or are leaving."

Several employees, like Smith, are staying on an extra month as part of a transition team.

"A lot of people here are not continuing on with American, so we're sad and happy at the same time," Smith said. "We're sad because a lot of people are not going to be here tomorrow. We're happy for those who are moving into new opportunities."

Reno-Tahoe International Airport had a farewell reception for Reno Air Monday.

"It's something we decided to do because it isn't every community that has an airline named after them," said Adam Mayberry, a spokesman for the airport.

The city of Reno got a lot of mileage out of Reno Air's flying billboards -- the airline's 25 MD-80 and MD-90 twin-engine jets. The city will continue to get that publicity for another four months. In January the green, silver and white jets with the mountain motif on the tail will be painted over with American's red, blue and silver livery.

American already has the same type of jets in its fleet and will modify the Reno Air planes with new seats, wall coverings and overhead storage bins.

American also has promised to keep 32 flights a day to nine destinations from Reno, including its three daily trips to and from Dallas.

Most of American's focus in the Reno Air acquisition has been on California. With the acquisition, American is adding 30 flights in Los Angeles and 32 in San Jose. The airline also is sinking $245 million in improvements into its passenger terminal at Los Angeles International Airport.

But Las Vegas could reap some future benefits as well.

Some critics point out that American hasn't done any expansion in Las Vegas -- just a rearrangement of existing flights. But those working on adding service to Las Vegas say American offers plenty of opportunity.

"To lose any carrier is always a sad day," said Bill Mahaffey, manager of transportation for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. "But the good thing about this merger is that the routes are being taken over by a viable carrier. American is one of the largest airlines in the world."

Harry Kassap, manager of air service development at McCarran, said his office already has inquired about beefing up service to two major international points of entry, New York and Miami.

"We've asked them to look into direct service from Miami, where American has a tremendous hub presence," Kassap said.

Miami is American's top gateway to South America, which is the No. 3 international target market for Las Vegas to fill hotel rooms. Kassap said American could be a part of the city's bid to cultivate tourism from Argentina, Brazil and Chile, especially since direct service from those countries on foreign carriers appears to be years away.

Mahaffey said service to Miami would be beneficial to Las Vegans interested in Caribbean cruises.

Kincaid said American is interested in any route that would be profitable to the airline. He noted that Dallas also provides a gateway to Latin America. He also said American's increased flights to Los Angeles offer easier connections to London's Heathrow Airport, Paris and Central America. Direct flights to San Jose, Calif., also connect with the airline's nonstop flights between San Jose and Tokyo.

American also has a number of code-sharing agreements with other airlines that Reno Air didn't have. Because of those, passengers can get one-stop service to Australia and Asia on Qantas and Cathay Pacific airlines.

Kassap also said his office has suggested that American investigate late-night flights from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, making money instead of parking planes overnight. America West and Delta already successfully employ the strategy from other cities, taking advantage of Las Vegas' reputation as a 24-hour destination.

archive