August passenger counts at Reid airport hits record

Harry Reid International Airport had the highest number of August passengers and the most passengers ever for a three-month period, the Clark County Department of Aviation reported Tuesday.

The airport reported 4.64 million passengers in August, two months after a record 4.86 million passengers passed through its gates in July.

“Heading into the summer, the outlook for LAS was optimistic with a record number of seats coming into the market in June, July and August respectively,” said Joe Rajchel, a spokesman for the airport. “That investment by the airlines was justified as those months currently stand as the three busiest months by passenger volume in the airport’s history. We will monitor what the rest of the year brings, but what we’ve seen is that the demand for Las Vegas continues to be incredibly strong.”

As usual, domestic passenger arrivals ruled the month.

The 4.31 million domestic passengers, including market leader Southwest Airlines’ 1.64 million, produced a 17.8 percent increase over August 2021.

International flying soared by 209.4 percent to 245,248 passengers.

The international market leader for the month was Westjet’s 56,053, a 6.1 percent increase.

For the first eight months of the year, passenger traffic rose 41.4 percent to 33.8 million travelers. Domestic flights made up 31.6 million passengers, up 36.8 percent, and international travelers rose 373.4 percent to 1.54 million.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.