Pedestrian bridge at McCarran may help ease airlines’ growing pains

By Richard N. Velotta (contact)

Wednesday, April 7, 2004 | 10:34 a.m.

A pedestrian bridge linking two concourses at McCarran International Airport would enable the airport's two busiest airlines to expand operations without inconveniencing passengers, the airport's top executive said Tuesday.

Randy Walker, Clark County's director of aviation, said the proposal to develop the $15 million link between the airport's B and C gates is driven by the rapid expansion of Southwest Airlines in Las Vegas, but the project also would help America West Airlines, which also has been expanding.

A professional services contract for Walker's proposal for an enclosed air-conditioned walkway with people-moving walkways stretching from near Gate C-27 to near Gate B-8 was approved by Clark County commissioners Tuesday. That means the proposed bridge, which has been in the discussion stages for more than a year, could be turned over to the Las Vegas architectural firm of Domingo Cambeiro Professional Corp. if a contract is negotiated.

There wouldn't be enough clearance for an aircraft to pass beneath the bridge, but there are no gates that would be blocked by the project. The bridge would enable passengers transit between concourses and keep people off the ramp area, where baggage is transported to aircraft from ticket counters.

The contract includes a plan to add a C gate on the east side of the concourse to compensate for a gate that would be lost in the bridge construction. Although gates are numbered up to 27, there are only 19 in the concourse.

"Putting it there (at Gate C-27) would make the bridge a direct shot, making it a little cheaper and faster to build," Walker said. "But you have to give up a gate."

Once a contract is developed, the plan would come back to the commission for approval before engineering could begin. Walker said any type of construction probably couldn't occur until next year after a project for the C-gate security checkpoint is completed.

And by then, Southwest could be nearing capacity at its home in the C gates. The Dallas-based airline, which handles more than one-third of the commercial passenger traffic at McCarran, has 180 flights to 44 nonstop markets. With 19 gates at its disposal, Southwest could comfortably handle about 190 flights a day.

But Walker pointed out that Southwest's long-haul flights take slightly longer to process and most of the airline's most recent expansion in Las Vegas involves flights that are longer than Southwest's average flight length.

With a pedestrian bridge in place, Southwest could park planes at the B gates and passengers could pass between the two concourses without having to exit secure areas behind security checkpoints.

Tempe, Ariz.-based America West has a different problem. The airline has 91 flights to 36 nonstop markets with a high percentage of flights that arrive and depart after 8 p.m. Walker said America West's problem is that a large number of its flights come and go at around the same time, creating a bottleneck and a need for additional gate space -- which could be provided at the C gates, since most of Southwest's operations occur during daylight hours.

Walker said some America West flights already arrive at one of the C gates to deplane passengers and the aircraft is moved for a departure from the B gates.

The pedestrian bridge proposal was first discussed more than a year ago when Southwest began expanding. One of the issues that had to be overcome was determining how to keep one concourse open in the event of a security breach in the other.

Walker said similar security concerns were addressed with glass walls and cameras at strategic locations in the airport and the pedestrian bridge would include similar precautions so that a large portion of the airport would not be crippled if one concourse has a security problem.