McCarran January traffic jumps

Tuesday, March 1, 2005 | 10:42 a.m.

Passenger traffic counts got off to a strong start in 2005 with a 9.8 percent increase in the number of passengers served at McCarran International Airport over last year.

Airport officials reported 3.3 million passengers used the airport in January, a month during which New Year's Eve revelers, International Consumer Electronics Show and World of Concrete conventioneers and college and professional football fans were in the city in large numbers.

February also is expected to be a strong month, with high numbers of tourists in the city for the Super Bowl, Chinese New Year and the MAGIC Marketplace fashion convention.

A record 41.1 million passengers used McCarran in 2004. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has projected a 2.1 percent increase in tourism traffic in 2005.

McCarran's five leading commercial passenger traffic generators remained unchanged from last year with Dallas-based market leader Southwest Airlines serving more than 1 million passengers in January, a 10.7 percent increase over the same month a year ago.

America West Airlines, which uses McCarran as a hub to move traffic through its system, reported 537,140 passengers for the month, an 8.5 percent increase over last year, and No. 3 United, which continues to operate under bankruptcy protection, had 258,457 passengers, an 11.7 percent increase over the previous year.

The top five are rounded out by Delta Air Lines and its Song discount subsidiary, 238,377 passengers, a 7.6 percent increase, and American Airlines, 199,985 passengers, a 4.7 percent increase.

Six commercial air carriers with scheduled service showed declines over the previous January and most of those airlines lost share because they offered fewer flights.

Houston-based Continental Airlines had 130,841 passengers, down 3.6 percent from the previous year, after trimming its schedule. Spirit Airlines, which cut two of its three Las Vegas flights, and Aloha Airlines, which now has one flight a day instead of two, had declines of 67.8 percent and 42.4 percent, respectively.

ATA Airlines, which is going through its own bankruptcy reorganization, saw traffic fall off 10.7 percent for the month to 45,946 passengers, while international carriers Air Canada and Aviacsa also showed declines.

The British market continues to be strong for Las Vegas with traffic on Virgin Atlantic Airways from London up 14.1 percent to 11,306 passengers compared with January 2004. Another British airline, BMI, had 3,348 passengers in January. It began Manchester, England-to-Las Vegas flights in October.

Japan Airlines, which has three flights a week between Tokyo and Las Vegas, had a 1.6 percent increase in traffic to 7,067 passengers for the month.

Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air continued to show strong increases in traffic with 51,304 passengers for the month, a 93.4 percent increase over the previous January.