Las Vegas getting direct flight from Mexico City

David Strow

Monday, March 11, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.

America West Airlines, the second-largest carrier at McCarran International Airport, today announced it would initiate the first non-stop service between Las Vegas and Mexico City on May 31.

The new flight, running four times per week, is the highlight of a rebuilding of America West's traffic into Las Vegas -- one that will see the Phoenix-based airline restore service to pre-Sept. 11 levels by June.

America West also announced today it is adding new flights to Dallas/Ft. Worth and Minneapolis, effective May 23, as well as resuming flights on June 1 between Las Vegas and Atlanta, Boston, Chicago O'Hare, Denver, Hartford, Conn., Indianapolis, New York-JFK and Orange County, Calif.

"We continue to see growth in customer demand and we're happy to be resuming service to meet those needs," said Scott Kirby, America West executive vice president of sales and marketing.

That demand was particularly high from Mexico City, America West spokeswoman Janice Monahan said. Service between Las Vegas and Mexico City previously was available only by connecting through Phoenix, "and we were noticing a lot of Vegas customers on that flight (Mexico City to Phoenix)," Monahan said.

No flights are being dropped to make room for the Mexico City flight, Monahan said.

America West cut service substantially to Las Vegas after the tourism slowdown caused by September's terrorist attacks. McCarran statistics show it had an average of 67 daily Las Vegas flights in February, down from 83 in August. Other airlines had similar cuts, and the resulting drop in visitation helped exacerbate Las Vegas' post-Sept. 11 slowdown.

Las Vegas hosted 35 million visitors in 2001, a 2.3 percent decline from 2000.

But America West has been slowly re-building its Las Vegas operation, including restoring flights to Washington's Reagan National Airport. The airline also said in January it would add service to Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs, Colo.

As of June 1, America West will have virtually returned to its pre-Sept. 11 levels, running 81 daily flights to 35 cities.

"The trend is your friend, and this (America West) is the continuation of a positive trend," said Larry Klatzkin, gaming analyst with Jefferies & Co. "It's one of many things that show positive signs that Las Vegas is coming back. Vegas continues to show signs that, by '03, the city should be back, and there should be no lingering effect of what happened on 9/11."

But Mexico City represents something Las Vegas didn't have, even before 9/11. Currently, there are three non-stop flights between Las Vegas and Mexico -- a daily flight to Monterrey by Aviacsa; a four-per-week flight to Hermosillo by Aeromexico; and a weekly flight to Guadalajara by Mexicana.

"Mexico loves to come to Las Vegas," said Bill Mahaffey, transportation manager for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. "This will make it much easier for the Mexican clientele to come our way. Any time we can secure a new port-of-entry carrier to bring the visitors to see us, it's always a win-win for the community."

Mexico City could be particularly lucrative, given the sheer size of that city. The metropolitan area is one of the world's largest, with a current population estimated at 27.8 million.

Mexico was the fourth-largest provider of international tourists to Las Vegas in 2000 at 231,000. This trailed Canada (1.4 million), Japan (511,000), and the United Kingdom (306,000).

However, these statistics track only flights coming from the interior of Mexico, and do not account for "substantial" drive-in traffic from Mexico, said LVCVA researcher Kevin Bagger.

The new Mexico City flight coincides with a rebound in international travel to Las Vegas.

Japan Airlines says it will return to pre-Sept. 11 levels by June; Virgin Atlantic Airlines, which has two flights a week between Las Vegas and London, is planning a third later this spring and Singapore Airlines plans to inaugurate service between Las Vegas and Hong Kong this summer.