August passenger traffic down

Friday, Sept. 20, 2002 | 11:02 a.m.

Passenger traffic at McCarran International Airport was down for the 12th consecutive month in August, but aviation officials expect the trend to reverse next month.

Airport officials reported 3.25 million people used the airport in August, down 3.8 percent from the 3.38 million air passengers that used it in August 2001.

The August passenger count brings the eight-month total to 23.6 million, 6.2 percent below the 25.2 million that used the airport in the first eight months of 2001.

Because passenger counts began plummeting in September after the terrorist attacks and passenger levels have been rebounding steadily, the number of passengers flying into McCarran should be above last year's levels for the last four months of the year.

Among the five leading carriers at McCarran, Las Vegas-based National Airlines was the only company that carried more passengers this year than in 2001, primarily because it has more flights than it had the previous year.