Chris Carlson / associated press file (2012)
Visitors crowd Terminal 3 at Harry Reid International Airport, formerly known as McCarran International, in Las Vegas.
Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Transportation officials are preparing for an influx of visitors ahead of Las Vegas’ first Super Bowl on Feb. 11, which is expected to bring hundreds of thousands of people to the city increasingly known as the “Sports Capital of the World.”
Their advice: Start planning.
“Flights and hotels should be booked ASAP,” Christina Bennett, a consumer travel expert at Priceline, said in an email. “Demand and prices will likely go up as the game gets closer … so I suggest booking as soon as possible.”
Airfares to Las Vegas on Super Bowl weekend have jumped in price about 112% year-over-year, Bennett said, which is significantly higher than last year’s Super Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., for which airfares had increased by 66% year-over-year.
Tickets to Las Vegas were averaging $306 per round-trip ticket for Super Bowl weekend as of Jan. 22, according to the travel booking app Hopper.
Many airlines have begun adding flights to Las Vegas for the weekend, including Southwest Airlines — which announced Sunday that it would offer additional itineraries out of San Francisco and Kansas City, Mo., home to the two competing teams — and American Airlines, which is launching a special direct service to Las Vegas from both cities, for a five-day period around the Super Bowl.
Joe Rajchel, spokesperson for Harry Reid International Airport, said the day after the Super Bowl — as people begin to depart from Las Vegas on Feb. 12 — would probably be the busiest.
He recommended that people start checking out of their hotel, scheduling rideshares or returning rental cars, etc., about four hours before their flight’s departure from Harry Reid, so they can arrive three hours prior to takeoff.
At the two hours-out mark, they should be in line at the security checkpoint, he said, so they can be at their gate an hour before departure.
“We want people to build in a little bit of extra time because, again … departures that Monday, and even potentially into that Tuesday, we just anticipate it’s going to be a lot busier as everyone looks to leave,” Rajchel said, noting that Las Vegas is used to a historically busy Super Bowl weekend.
Even as demand drives flight prices up, many fans may opt to drive to Las Vegas over Super Bowl weekend instead of fly.
Justin Hopkins, spokesperson for the Nevada Department of Transportation, said the division anticipates a lot of traffic out of Southern California and Utah, similar to other large events in Las Vegas like the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix or New Year’s Eve.
As a result, he said, NDOT is “pulling back as many restrictions as possible” at its projects along the Interstate 15 corridor.
In an email to the Sun, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) said it had been working with its Nevada counterpart to address anticipated Super Bowl traffic, particularly by opening a part-time shoulder lane on Interstate 15, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on game day and the following two days.
The extra lane is normally only open Sundays and Mondays, and should ease congestion, Caltrans said in an email.
“It’s definitely going to be a regional traffic event,” Hopkins said. “And one of the things that we see is, if drivers can avoid the most peak travel times, they’re going to give themselves the best shot at avoiding traffic.”
