Mccarran sees steep drop: Passengers slip 96 percent
In another indicator of the toll the coronavirus pandemic has had on Las Vegas, Mccarran International Airport said Thursday that it saw a 96 percent decrease in passenger volume in April.
The dropoff was so severe that Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air saw just 199 passengers in April, down from 199,359 passengers in April 2019.
Southwest Airlines, Mccarran’s busiest carrier, saw 69,289 passengers in April, a decline of 95.5 percent from 1.5 million passengers in the same month last year.
But with businesses in Nevada opening back up, Southwest said Thursday it is adding flights to Las Vegas for the remainder of the year in anticipation of an increase in air travel.
After reducing its flight schedule amid the coronavirus pandemic, Southwest announced it had extended its published flight schedule through Jan. 4, and added new flights to Las Vegas, Denver, Nashville, Tennessee, and Phoenix.
The airline did not specify the number of new flights or their origination points, but its schedule for November shows 18 more daily flights to Las Vegas than in November 2019. The schedule shows 26 more daily flights in December than a year ago.
“We’re rounding out our plan for this unprecedented year with our business travelers in mind with a fourth quarter schedule that brings them new routes across the country,” Andrew Watterson, Southwest Airlines executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said in a statement.
Additionally, Southwest plans to resume service to Mexico and the Caribbean, including Cancun, San Jose del Cabo/los Cabos, Havana, Montego Bay, and Nassau on July 1, subject to change.
Service to the carrier’s other international destinations will resume pending the easing of government restrictions.
Southwest cut its flight schedule by 40 percent in March because of the effects of COVID-19, flying around 2,000 flights daily.
Other carriers also reduced flights in response to the pandemic and Mccarran’s statistics for April reflect those cutbacks.
Last month, the airport saw 152,716 passengers pass through its gates, down from the 4.3 million passengers recorded in April 2019, according to data from the Clark County Department of Aviation.
The passenger count is the lowest in recent history at the airport, according to Joe Rajchel, Mccarran spokesman, and followed another severe decline in March when passenger traffic at Mccarran fell by over 2 million people, a 53 percent drop from the same month in 2019.
For the year, Mccarran has seen 10.2 million passengers, down 37 percent from the 16.2 million passengers in the first four months of 2019. Mccarran saw a record 51.5 million travelers pass through its gates in 2019, the third straight year of record annual passenger volume.
Besides Southwest and Allegiant, other major carriers also saw significant decreases in passenger traffic at Mccarran last month. United Airlines was down 98.1 percent from April 2019, Delta Air Lines fell 97.1 percent, American Airlines dropped 95 percent and Spirit Airlines was off 93 percent.
Contact Mick Akers at makers@ reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.