McCarran traffic jumps in ‘04

Thursday, Jan. 27, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

In a year in which airports nationwide reported record traffic, McCarran International set a new standard for itself in 2004: the arrival and departure of a record 41.1 million passengers.

The 14.3 percent year-over-year increase in passenger traffic was highlighted by double-or triple-digit percentage increases in traffic for more than half of the 29 commercial passenger carriers serving the Las Vegas airport.

Although an aviation analyst termed the 2004 McCarran statistics as "strong," they're not among the best reported so far by the nation's largest airports.

"Among the 125 largest airports, the average growth is running around 8.3 percent," said Brian Streeval, an industry consultant for the Evergreen, Colo.-based Boyd Group.

Streeval said only about a third of the airports has compiled yearlong statistics so far, but through November, metropolitan Washington's Dulles International Airport showed a 33.7 percent increase in passengers while Denver International Airport dropped to a clip of about 16.9 percent after running most of the year about 20 percent ahead of 2003.

He explained that Denver International -- a stronghold for United Airlines -- didn't see a major flight pullback many expected from the bankrupt carrier and rival Frontier Airlines continued to grow.

Dulles International's growth has centered around the launch and expansion of Independence Air, a commuter carrier that is growing into a regional operation and already has put Las Vegas on its list of new destinations.

"Las Vegas is an essential part of most airlines' networks," Streeval said, explaining McCarran's growth. "Even though the yields aren't particularly good, you have to fly it."

He explained that because of intense competition, especially by a legion of low-cost carriers, ticket prices have remained low to the Las Vegas market. While airlines don't make a lot of money on their Las Vegas routes, he said, they're compelled to add flights to meet customer expectations and match the efforts of competitors. Some like Las Vegas because the destination is a good place for loyal customers to burn their frequent-flier miles.

Passenger counts were particularly high for four of the top five airlines serving the market as well as a local upstart exploiting the niche of operating between McCarran and several secondary markets.

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, the busiest commercial passenger carrier at McCarran with nearly twice as many local customers as its nearest competitor, had 13 million passengers, a 10.8 percent increase over the 2003 count. No. 2 America West Airlines of Tempe, Ariz., had a 12.5 percent increase in 2004 to 6.8 million passengers.

Even bankrupt United, operating exclusively in Las Vegas with its Ted low-cost subsidiary, had a 16.7 percent increase in passengers to 3.2 million for 2004. And the No. 5 carrier, American Airlines, was up 11.7 percent to 2.6 million passengers.

Of the top five, only No. 4 Delta Air Lines had a single-digit percentage increase with a 6 percent climb to 2.8 million passengers.

Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air, which has grown steadily with flights to markets like Fort Collins, Colo., and Sioux Falls, S.D., had a year-over-year growth rate of 102.1 percent to 538,524 passengers for 2004.

McCarran also logged some impressive increases in international arrivals in 2004.

Passenger counts to Terminal 2, which houses nine airlines with nonstop flights from outside the United States, were up 21.3 percent to 1.7 million passengers. Japan Airlines and Virgin Atlantic showed double-digit increases for the year and new-to-Las Vegas international fliers Philippine Airlines and BMI showed strong results since their 2004 startups.

Airlines operating between Las Vegas and Mexico and Canada had mixed results, with Mexicana showing a 123.1 percent increase in traffic, but Aeromexico off 1 percent year over year. Vancouver, British Columbia-based HMY Airlines' counts were up 107.1 percent but Air Canada's traffic counts were up only 6.2 percent over 2003.

Charter traffic to McCarran was off 7.6 percent from the previous year to 1.6 million passengers, but general aviation traffic was up 12.9 percent to 253,764 passengers for the year. Traffic at the Eagle Aviation Terminal dominated by helicopter companies was up 15.8 percent for the year to 323,979 passengers.