McCarran reports 1.8 percent drop in passengers for 2010

By Kyle B. Hansen

Thursday, Jan. 27, 2011 | 11:27 a.m.

McCarran International Airport served nearly 39.8 million passengers in 2010, a 1.8 percent drop from the previous year, the airport reported Thursday.

But the year ended in December with passenger counts at the airport nearly the same as the previous December.

The airport reported seeing 39,757,359 arriving and departing passengers in 2010, down from 40,469,012 passengers in 2009.

McCarran has seen traffic decreases for the last three years, after serving more than 47.7 million passengers in 2007. But last year’s 1.8 percent drop might show the decrease leveling off. The airport had a 7.7 percent decrease in 2008 and an 8.2 percent decrease in 2009, when compared to the previous year.

In December, the airport carried 3,083,676 passengers, a 0.4 percent decrease from December 2009, when the airport served 3,097,382 passengers.

Airport spokesman Chris Jones said December’s count might have been higher if not for bad weather in the eastern U.S. and parts of Europe, which prompted the cancellation of a number of flights to Las Vegas.

McCarran has seen slight decreases in travelers each month over the past year, with the exception of October, when the airport’s passenger count was up 2 percent from the previous October.

October was also the month with the most passengers in 2010, with 3,584,819 people using the airport.

While traffic at the airport as a whole has been down, some of the airport’s busiest carriers have seen slight passenger count increases.

Southwest, the airport’s dominant airline, saw an increase of 3.3 percent in December compared to a year earlier, with 1.3 million passengers. In 2010, the airline served 15,737,512 passengers at McCarran, a 1.1 percent increase from 2009.

Delta, the second busiest carrier at McCarran, had a 2.7 percent decrease in December, but had a 7.8 percent increase in passengers for the year, with 4,124,029 in 2010.

American Airlines had a 4.9 percent increase in December and a 2.9 percent increase for the year, while U.S. Airways had a 22 percent drop in passengers for December and a 50.4 percent decrease for 2010.

Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air saw a 16.1 percent increase in December, bringing the airline to 1,954,366 passengers for the year, a 5.8 percent increase from 2009’s total.