Big month at McCarran still below March 2008 numbers

In Business Las Vegas

Friday, April 24, 2009 | 2 a.m.

More than 3.6 million passengers used McCarran International Airport in March, but it was still an 11.8 percent decline from a year ago, the Clark County Aviation Department said.

Passenger traffic is down 14.1 percent compared with 2008’s first quarter.

Only six of the 29 airlines at McCarran with scheduled service this year and last showed an increase in the number of passengers served between March 2008 and last month.

Aeromexico had a 53.5 percent increase in passengers to 4,872. San Francisco-based Virgin America, which has expanded its Las Vegas routes in the past year, climbed 51.2 percent to 42,487, and Hawaiian Airlines increased passenger counts 22 percent to 38,456.

British Midland, which ends service between Manchester, England, and Las Vegas this month, had a 13.5 percent increase in passengers to 3,954 in March and Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air was up 4.8 percent to 181,821 for the month. Northwest Airlines, which has merged with Delta Air Lines but continues to be tracked separately by McCarran, had a 0.2 percent increase in passengers to 138,014.

The top six traffic generators at McCarran had year-over-year declines in March. No. 1 Southwest Airlines had a 2.8 percent decline to 1.4 million passengers, while No. 2 US Airways, which has had massive capacity cuts to Las Vegas, was off 33 percent to 458,616.

United Airlines fell 5.5 percent to 251,665, Delta dropped 10 percent to 202,150, American was down 1.3 percent to 185,876 and Continental Airlines was down 4.1 percent to 173,276.

Allegiant may soon surpass Continental as the No. 6 carrier at McCarran after its strong March performance, but for the year to date, the Houston-based airline has still flown more passengers than the local upstart.