Airport employees alarmed by safety of parking at Harry Reid International
Some airline flight attendants are raising safety concerns after employee parking at the Las Vegas airport was moved from Terminal 1 to a remote lot.
Jenann Logan, a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines, posted pictures on Instagram of broken glass at a shuttle stop and complained about a lack of proper lighting, security and emergency boxes. Other flight attendants in her comments section echoed her concerns.
“As a flight attendant, I do not feel safe going to work right now,” Logan said at a recent Clark County Commission meeting.
“The lot that they moved us to, the buses are inconsistent, the homeless population is rampant … They have put up some lights (but) the lights do not come on at dark,” Logan said.
Logan asked commissioners to “light a fire” under the county Department of Aviation to address the issues.
Officials with Harry Reid International Airport announced in January a plan to convert more than 1,500 employee parking spaces on the zero level of the Terminal 1 garage and an adjacent surface lot into customer parking.
Employee parking was moved to the economy lot just north of the terminal on Kitty Hawk Way. Free shuttles run from the parking lot to the terminal.
Logan said it’s not just flight attendants who are affected by the move. “There’s pilots, there’s TSA … lots of employees,” she told commissioners. “We’re asking for your help.”
Airport officials have received employee feedback about the move and are working to “adjust where we can,” spokesman Joe Rajchel said. “This is a new process for everybody.”
“We do have quite a few security protocols already in place over in that area, and this is an area that the public has been parking at for many years,” Rajchel said.
The lot is equipped with cameras and has roving security patrols, he said. Shuttle drivers also have radios, he said.
The decision to move the employee parking lot was made with the input of airlines and airport tenants to better accommodate travelers, Rajchel said.
With more locals traveling, the Terminal 1 garage has been filling to capacity at three times the rate it was before the pandemic, Rajchel said.
A record 56.2 million people passed through the Las Vegas airport last year, breaking the previous record of 51.5 million in 2019.
“So, this was necessary to give the traveling public a more convenient parking option as they fly through Terminal 1,” he said.
Some renovations were needed to the zero level of the garage, but it is expected to be available for public use in the next couple of months, Rajchel said.