Las Vegas airline traffic still off from 2000

Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2003 | 11:17 a.m.

Passenger traffic at McCarran International Airport was up 7.1 percent in December over the same period a year ago, but was still down compared with 2000 statistics, the Clark County Department of Aviation reported Tuesday.

The airport said 2.7 million people used the airport last month, compared with 2.5 million in December 2001. However, in December 2000, 3 million people used McCarran, 8.5 percent more than last month.

For the year, 2002 visitation to McCarran was slightly below levels from the previous year. The airport said 35 million passengers passed through last year compared with 35.2 million in 2001, a 0.5 percent decline. In 2000, 36.9 million used the airport, 5 percent ahead of the 2002 figure.

Numbers were off in 2001 and 2002 as the airline industry recovered from the lingering effects of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Among the scheduled air carriers serving McCarran, Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines has positioned itself to take over as the No. 3 carrier behind market leaders Southwest and America West airlines. In December, Delta carried 213,412 passengers to Las Vegas, ahead of bankrupt Chicago-based United Airlines, which had 204,719 for the month. For the entire year, United held the No. 3 position with 2.6 million passengers, compared with Delta's 2.4 million.

For 2002, No. 1 Southwest served 10.8 million passengers in Las Vegas, a decline of 0.7 percent from 2001, while No. 2 America West had 5.5 million passengers, a 2.7 percent decrease from the 5.6 million flown in 2001.