Southwest, America West adding LV flights

Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004 | 11:12 a.m.

The two airlines with the most flights at McCarran International Airport will add more operations early next year.

America West Airlines, which offers nonstop flights to 55 destinations from Las Vegas -- the most by any airline -- said Monday that it would begin roundtrips to Albuquerque beginning March 1.

In addition, the Tempe, Ariz.-based airline, the No. 2 operator at McCarran, announced additional round trips between Las Vegas and Burbank, Oakland and Ontario, Calif., on Mesa Airlines, which operates as a commuter partner as America West Express.

The commuter partner will add a second flight to Burbank on Feb. 11, a third flight to Ontario on Dec. 1 and a fourth flight to Oakland on Feb. 11. America West and America West Express combine for 111 flights to and from McCarran, airport officials said.

America West added service between 15 new cities and Las Vegas in 2004.

Meanwhile, the largest operator at McCarran, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, announced Monday that an additional operation between Midway Airport and Las Vegas would be among 16 new round trips at the Chicago airport.

The new round trip will bring the total number of Southwest flights between McCarran and Midway to 10, beginning Feb. 4.

Southwest announced last week that it intends to beef up service to Chicago, making it the fourth-largest market for the company.

With the 16 additional flights to 13 markets, Southwest will increase its presence at Midway from 145 daily flights to 161.

McCarran officials say Southwest has 189 daily flights to and from Las Vegas, making it the largest operator here and the largest station on the Southwest system.