Vegas flight count ebbed in April

Wednesday, May 2, 2001 | 11:13 a.m.

Growth study

A Boeing subsidiary won a consulting contract with the Clark County Department of Aviation to develop a model to project traffic at McCarran International Airport in coming years.

The Preston Group, Melbourne, Australia, will use its Total Airspace and Airport Modeller technology to simulate air and ground movements to help develop forecasts for 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2020. The simulations will include an evaluation of a new international airport in the Ivanpah Valley to assess its environmental effects and usage in conjunction with McCarran.

Under the contract, The Preston Group is expected to complete its model in summer 2002. The contract is valued at up to $471,000.

Las Vegas had a net loss of four round-trip flights to and from its airport in April, with routes to the Pacific Northwest affected the most.

Statistics from McCarran International Airport say McCarran had an average 438 round-trip flights a day in April, down from the 442 average in March.

The number of flights to and from Las Vegas has a direct effect on visitation and the number of hotel rooms that are filled in the city. About half the city's visitors arrive by plane.

America West Airlines, the second-busiest carrier serving McCarran, dropped four flights during the month and US Airways, which may be bought out by United Airlines, dropped two of its Las Vegas operations. Alaska Airlines also discontinued one daily flight and Delta Air Lines had a net decrease of one flight in April.

Southwest and United Airlines each had a net increase of one daily flight to and from McCarran.

The number of flights between Las Vegas and Portland, Ore., fell from eight to five in April with Delta scrapping its two daily flights and America West ending its lone round trip. Southwest and Alaska Airlines are now the lone competitors on that route.

Rossi Ralenkotter, vice president of marketing for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said there are a number of factors involved in an airline's decision to add or cut service.

"Their route and financial experts make decisions on the best utilization of equipment," Ralenkotter said.

And, while cuts in flights to Portland -- one of the cities that the LVCVA has targeted in recent years with a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign -- hurt in the short term, Ralenkotter is confident long-term strategies for building air service have been working.

The LVCVA and representatives from the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, the Nevada Resort Association, McCarran and the Nevada Development Authority have lobbied airline executives to increase service to the city, particularly from the East Coast and from international destinations. Those efforts have paid off with service from London on Virgin Atlantic Airlines and major growth in Las Vegas by the busiest carrier at McCarran, Southwest Airlines.

"And just because some of the service has been cut doesn't mean we're not getting traffic from that city," Ralenkotter said. "People in Portland can get here through San Francisco or Los Angeles. We prefer the convenience factor (of nonstop flights) and it helps with impulse buys, but there are other ways to get here."

Other Northwestern cities also had reduced scheduling.

Seattle-based Alaska Airlines cut one of its nine daily flights to Seattle, reducing the total number of daily operations there to 11.

Southwest Airlines' one flight a week to Spokane, Wash., also was discontinued, leaving no direct service in that market.

The service pullout with the highest profile -- Northwest Airlines' elimination of nonstop flights between Las Vegas and Tokyo -- also took effect in April. Northwest's twice-a-week service was the first scheduled nonstop service between Las Vegas and Asia when it began in 1999. Northwest, which flew the route with Boeing 747 jumbo jets, confirmed last fall that it was scrapping the flights to beef up service between Tokyo and its North American hubs of Minneapolis and Detroit.

Meanwhile, Atlanta-based Delta, which currently has 21 daily flights to and from Las Vegas after dropping the Portland routes and adding one flight to Los Angeles, announced this week that it would add a sixth daily flight to Atlanta and a fourth to Cincinnati in June.

A Delta spokeswoman said the airline would use 200-seat Boeing 757 jets for those flights, which will operate during daylight hours.

Another 757 flier, Las Vegas-based National, will inaugurate service to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago Thursday with two daily nonstop flights. National already offers service to Chicago's Midway Airport. National, operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, recently took delivery of its 16th plane and is expanding operations.

Other cities getting an increase in service in April were Chicago's Midway Airport (increased operations by Southwest and National Airlines); Hartford, Conn. (upgrade to daily service by America West); Kansas City (the entry into the market by Vanguard Airlines); Newark, N.J. (increased operations by Continental Airlines) Page, Ariz. (new service by Mesa Airlines as America West Express); Salt Lake City (new service by SkyWest Airlines as Delta Express); San Francisco (additional operations by National) Washington's Dulles International Airport (new flight by United) and Winnipeg (additional operations by Canada 3000).

Other cities seeing a decrease in service in April were Bakersfield, Calif. (decrease in operations by Mesa Airlines as America West Express); Charlotte, N.C. (flight cut by US Airways); Columbus, Ohio (flight cut by America West); Dallas-Fort Worth (decreased operations by America West); El Paso, Texas (decreased operations by America West); Houston Intercontinental (elimination of two weekly flights by Sun Country Airlines); Minneapolis (decreased operations by Sun Country); Philadelphia (elimination of one flight each by National and US Airways); Phoenix (reduced operations by Southwest and America West); and Santa Barbara, Calif. (reduced operations by Mesa as America West Express).