Passenger traffic at Las Vegas airport dips slightly in November

Friday, Dec. 28, 2012 | 10:45 a.m.

Passenger traffic at McCarran International Airport dropped slightly for the third month in a row in November, according to statistics released Friday. Traffic dropped 0.3 percent in November compared to the same month last year, with a total of 3.31 million travelers arriving or departing. Despite the slight decline, overall airport traffic through the first 11 months of the year is up 0.6 percent to 38.49 million passengers. McCarran suffered its largest monthly decline in passengers traffic of the year — a 3 percent drop — in September. Strong international travel, which increased 6 percent from last year, helped offset ...

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By kirkland

Dec. 29, 2012

9:04 p.m.

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Now we hear that it also will be down in quarter 1. What is Randy Walker judged on for running the airport? Ever since he let US Airways walk away without effort - outside of International flights, Walker has not done much but make errors. Domestic flights -take away Allegiant - nothing added. Terminal 3 opens with high rent which was not well received by airlines. Companies who wanted access were told to pay high rents, which now he is rebating. All while gates in the A & B areas sit empty with the comments that US Airways might move next - which if anyone has gone through security for the new terminal can tell you - it is not as fast as the A & B Gates. Who holds Walker responsible? What if anything being done to add more domestic flights? All will tell you - hotels would rather have a guest who flies into Vegas than drives into Vegas, as they spend more and dont try to sleep 6 to a guest room.

The town needs the numbers of flights to be increased period. Someone has a job to accomplish this and Walker is the main guy who should be answering questions about what is being done. Instead of talking about shutting down areas of the airport, he should be able to talk about what is being able to get these flights back - yet nothing is said. He wanted more gates, has had a debacle in rent, overcharging, slow screening with TSA and customs. So when you wonder why Vegas is still slow to recover - look at the airport and the fact that no one is being held responsible for their hefty salary. He can save $$ on closing areas and not cleaing bathrooms - but a 5 am flight to Panama is not as needed as 3 flights to New York and Washington DC are right now. Simple math Randy - 500 passengers vs. 150 passengers. He has not figured this out and to raise landing fees did not help his cause - he is in charge, dont know how he should still be.