Las Vegas McCarran airport hopes to celebrate hosting the World Route Development forum next year with a slight upturn in capacity after weathering drastic cuts during the last two years.
Currently capacity levels are down 15-18% from their peak in the spring of 2008 after US Airways cut its seats flown to the airport from 13 million in 2006 to 3 million this year, says McCarran International Airport Air Service Development Administrator Mark Suman.
The airport's largest carrier, Southwest, has also cut its capacity as it deploys its aircraft elsewhere, to LaGuardia, Panama City and upcoming flights to Newark, Suman explains.
But with total visitor counts to Las Vegas growing roughly 2-3% year over year, Suman believes the capacity cuts by carriers to the airport "will be over by the end of the year", if economics continue to improve.
One positive aspect of the capacity cuts is fares to Las Vegas are up in the double digits compared to a year ago, says Suman, and that's producing positive unit revenues for airlines serving the airport.
To combat the capacity cuts, the airport has reduced annual operating expenses "on the order of 8-10%" from a couple of years ago and has tried to keep costs comparable to other destination airports, "but it hasn't been easy", he says.
Source: Flight Daily News
