McCarran by the numbers

Feb. 06--Embedded within last week's statistical report on the 41.5 million passengers who arrived and departed from McCarran International Airport are dozens of positives, negatives and what-ifs that will define how successful Southern Nevada's tourism industry is going to be in 2012 and beyond.

Assuming McCarran is a key driver and indicator of economic success -- and most agree it is -- the details within the report provide a mix of questions and answers to consider:

What was the final count on international traffic? The 14 airlines that delivered passengers from foreign countries brought 2.6 million passengers to and from McCarran. That's a 16.8-percent increase over 2010 and 6.2 percent of the total volume, which includes people who came and went from the other terminals and helipads on the western side of the airport.

Will we get more international passengers? Definitely. Canada's WestJet, which had 19.7 percent growth over 2010 and brought just shy of 1 million people here, continues to be in a growth mode, has new aircraft on order and loves Las Vegas. WestJet isn't likely to maintain the pace it has had, considering it's also developing new routes -- last week, it announced new service to Jamaica and Aruba.

Only three of the 14 international carriers showed a year-over-year decline, and one of those, Korean Air, was just a 0.5-percent decrease. It is worrisome that Korean, the only nonstop lift between Las Vegas and Asia, showed a decline considering the explosive growth of the market. Expanding Korean's three flights a week to daily service would help, but clearly nonstop flights from China is high on McCarran's wish list.

On the other side of the world, even if flying from Europe to Las Vegas maintains the status quo, the numbers will increase from 2011 because British Airways is using a larger aircraft than it did earlier in the year and Virgin Atlantic started nonstop flights from Manchester in April.

There are also greater opportunities from Latin America on the horizon, with steady increases by 2010 McCarran arrival Volaris, a partner of airport big dog Southwest Airlines. Panamanian carrier Copa Airlines will begin flights to Las Vegas in June. And don't forget, Southwest is contemplating direct flights to and from Mexico and could be in the mix soon if Las Vegas is one of the new gateways.

A big question now is what happens if an international carrier wants to bring a flight into McCarran between midnight and 8 a.m., the hours that McCarran's Customs and Border Protection would be closed. Kim Smith, the terminal's port director, said in a recent briefing that her office wouldn't be able to accommodate an early-morning arrival.

Would Las Vegas turn away the potential of more than 90,000 passengers a year because an office is closed? Stay tuned.

Who had the biggest growth in 2011? Hands down, Spirit Airlines, the Florida-based discounter that has raised so many hackles about the new air fare advertising rules.

Spirit had 228 percent growth and brought more than 1 million passengers to Las Vegas, thanks to the addition of five new routes and 15 new daily flights.

Sen. Barbara Boxer of California publicly criticized Spirit for telling its passengers the new airfare rules hide how much passengers must pay in federal taxes for their tickets. The airline's argument is that by having to disclose a total ticket price passengers don't realize how much of that is tacked on by the government.

How bad has the US Airways pullback affected Las Vegas? Surprisingly, US Airways had a 5.3 percent increase in passenger volume to 2.4 million despite a steady decline in flights over the year. Today, the airline has about 100 fewer flights per week than it had a year ago, down to an average 21 a day spread over four destinations. It once had about 130 daily flights.

How is Allegiant doing? Las Vegas-based Allegiant had a 6.4 percent increase in passengers over 2010 and cracked the 2 million mark for the first time. With more aircraft being acquired and the potential of more routes and the existing fleet getting more seats, count on Allegiant to grow some more.

The big question about Allegiant is when, how and from where the company will fly its promised routes to Hawaii. One thing Allegiant is really good at is keeping us guessing.

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