Two LV airlines growing

Monday, Nov. 3, 2003 | 11:08 a.m.

Three of the nation's major air carriers will have new nonstop round-trip flights to and from Las Vegas by early next year.

America West Airlines, the No. 2 commercial passenger carrier at McCarran International Airport, will beef up its West Coast service to Las Vegas with nine new round trips from nine destinations. The Tempe, Ariz.-based airline will have an average 100 daily departures to and from Las Vegas when the expansion is completed and the nine additional flights will increase service to cities currently served nonstop by America West from Las Vegas.

The move by America West will intensify its head-to-head competition with Las Vegas market leader Southwest Airlines in all nine cities: Los Angeles, Oakland, Ontario, San Diego, San Jose and Sacramento, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Phoenix; and Reno.

The new Oakland round trips began Oct. 26; the other new flights begin Jan. 7.

When the expansion is complete, America West will have 11 round trips a day to and from Phoenix, nine to and from Los Angeles, three each to and from Oakland and Sacramento and two each to and from Ontario, Portland and Reno. The airline will have four round trips and a one-way flight from San Diego and two round trips and a one-way from San Jose.

Meanwhile, two other major air carriers are offering new nonstop round-trip flights to and from Las Vegas.

Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines has added a fifth round trip between Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and McCarran and a second round trip between Miami International Airport and McCarran. The new daily flights began Saturday.

American, the No. 5 carrier at McCarran by number of passengers served, announced last summer that it would reduce the size of its St. Louis hub and place additional flights in other American hubs, including Chicago, Dallas and Miami. Company officials said two of the four nonstop round trips between St. Louis and Las Vegas were eliminated when the Chicago and Miami flights began.

That leaves three daily nonstop round trips between St. Louis and Las Vegas, two on American and one on Southwest.

American competes with United, America West and Spirit airlines on the O'Hare airport route and with America West on the Miami route.

Meanwhile, Minneapolis-based Northwest Airlines will re-enter the busy Los Angeles-Las Vegas market in December with a single nonstop round trip between McCarran and Los Angeles International Airport.

Northwest, the No. 7 McCarran carrier, currently has 12 flights a day to four markets from Las Vegas. The new Los Angeles service, to be offered on twin-engine jets, will begin Dec. 26.

The airline will use 100-passenger DC-9 jets until Jan. 6 when 148-seat Airbus A-320 jets will be used on the route. A spokeswoman for the company said Northwest is redeploying existing aircraft from other routes to accommodate the new Las Vegas service, which is being marketed to serve international passengers arriving in Los Angeles from Asia and bound for Las Vegas.

There are an average 31 flights a day between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and competitors on the route include Southwest, America West, United and American. Northwest discontinued flights between the cities several months ago.