McCarran passenger volume falls 15 percent

By Mary Manning

Thursday, March 19, 2009 | 2:02 p.m.

Passenger volume declined at McCarran International Airport for the 12th consecutive month in February when compared to the previous year, according to passenger numbers released today.

Airport officials said 3,036,715 passengers passed through McCarran's gates in February, a 15.2 percent drop from February 2008.

There are an average of 481 scheduled flights a day arriving at McCarran.

Of the top five airlines serving the Las Vegas market, American Airlines based in Fort Worth, Texas, showed the smallest decrease in the number of passengers coming to Las Vegas. The airline, the No. 5 carrier to this market with an average of 21 flights a day, had 160,793 passengers, a 2 percent decline from February 2008 when 164,064 passengers were counted.

The biggest decline among the top five was No. 2 US Airways, which had 34.5 percent fewer passengers, at 394,477, compared with February 2008. The carrier based in Tempe, Ariz., averages 72 flights a day and has announced further cuts in capacity to Las Vegas coming in May.

Southwest Airlines based in Dallas, the market leader in Las Vegas, had 1.15 million passengers in February, a 9.3 percent decline from the past year. The airline averages 218 flights a day.

Delta declined 14.5 percent for February, carrying 172,517 passengers, compared to 201,753 in 2008.

The number of passengers through the airport this year is off about 15.4 percent compared to the same time period last year.

Despite the decline compared to last year, passenger number in February increased from December and January numbers.

In addition to the standard passenger statistics pages, this month I wanted to note that on a per-day average, McCarran's February 2009 total improved by 11.3 percent vs. January 2009's total, and was up 6.3 percent vs. December 2008's daily average.