Southwest the strongest

Wednesday, April 19, 2000 | 2:01 a.m.

The airline with the largest presence at McCarran International Airport also has the strongest following on the Internet. Dallas-based Southwest Airlines operates both Southwest.com and Iflyswa.com.

Unique monthly visitors (in thousands)

Southwest.com (Southwest): 1,993 AA.com (American): 1,962 Delta-air.com (Delta): 1,591 UAL.com (United): 1,386 USAirways.com (US Airways): 1,104 Continental.com (Continental): 1,045 IFlyswa.com (Southwest): 958 NWA.com (Northwest): 954 AlaskaAir.com (Alaska): 508 TWA.com (TWA): 508

While Bear Stearns & Co.'s report on online travel predicts 25 percent of the nation's travel agents will be out of a job within three years, the company's research says the top reason consumers don't buy tickets online is because they prefer to use a travel agent. The top reasons for not shopping online:

Prefer to use travel agent: 28 percent Find information inconsistent: 14 percent Do not trust travel sites: 13 percent Someone else makes travel arrangements: 9 percent Not familiar with good travel sites: 9 percent Don't know how: 7 percent New to the Internet: 5 percent