McCarran passenger volume declines again

By Richard N. Velotta

Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009 | 5:13 p.m.

Passenger volume declined at McCarran International Airport for the 11th consecutive month in January with traffic hitting the steepest monthly decline since the post-9/11 days.

Airport officials said Wednesday that 3 million passengers passed through McCarran’s gates in January, a 15.7 percent decrease from January 2008. Seat capacity fell 11.6 percent during the same time frame, indicating that the declines are as much about the ailing economy as it is about fewer flights coming into the market.

There are an average 481 scheduled flights a day to the market.

Of the top five airlines serving the Las Vegas market, only Fort Worth, Texas-based American Airlines showed an increase in the number of passengers coming to Las Vegas. The airline, the No. 5 carrier to the market with an average 21 flights a day, had 170,491 passengers, a 1.9 percent increase over January 2008.

The biggest decline among the top five was No. 2 US Airways, which had 35.5 percent fewer passengers to 412,639 compared with January 2008. The Tempe, Ariz.-based carrier averages 72 flights a day and last week announced further capacity cuts to Las Vegas by May.

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, the market leader in Las Vegas, had 1.1 million passengers in January, a 10.2 percent decline from the previous year. The airline averages 218 flights a day and has about 7 percent less capacity than it had a year ago.

Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air and San Francisco-based Virgin America showed the most improvement in passenger counts at the airport.

Allegiant, which specializes in flying between small-city airports and Las Vegas, saw its traffic climb 7.3 percent to 133,860 passengers. Allegiant has done a better job filling its planes, as capacity dropped 5.1 percent from the previous year.

Virgin America, financed in part by Virgin Atlantic chairman Richard Branson, saw traffic climb 65.8 percent to 36,271 passengers, thanks to a 13.2 percent growth in capacity since 2008.

Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, passenger counts fell to 2.1 million passengers and monthly totals didn’t climb above the 3 million plateau until March 2002.