McCarran clocks 3.8M passengers in August, a decrease from July

Nearly 4 million travelers passed through McCarran International Airport’s gates in August as airline travel continues to feel the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 3.8 million passengers that went through McCarran last month amounted to a 14 percent decline from the same month in 2019, when 4.4 million passengers were clocked at the airport, according to figures released Monday by the Clark County Department of Aviation.

Passenger volume, which includes both departing and arriving flights, was also down 8.3 percent from July when 4.15 million passed through the airport’s gates — the first time McCarran had surpassed the 4 million mark since January 2020.

On top of pandemic related impacts, airport spokesman Joe Rajchel noted that Spirit Airlines experienced a prolonged network outage at the beginning of the month that likely affected passenger volume.

“That resulted in cancellations and undoubtedly had an impact,” Rajchel said.

Spirit saw 367,873 passengers, a 27 percent decrease over July’s 508,829 travelers. Last month’s total was also 24 percent below August 2019’s figure of 487,162 passengers.

Through August, McCarran is 30 percent under the first eight months of 2019, serving 23.9 million passengers this year compared to 34.2 million during the same period in 2019.

Southwest Airlines, McCarran’s busiest carrier, accounted for 1.42 million of August’s travelers, which was 3 percent lower than August 2019’s 1.46 million passengers.

Frontier Airlines was one of two airlines that saw passenger volumes higher than August 2019 figures, with its passenger volume spiking 44 percent from 259,119 during the same month in 2019 to 374,907 travelers last month.

The other carrier that saw an increase was JetBlue, which experienced a 4 percent increase from 97,221 passengers in August 2019 to 101,967 this August.

Frontier is also the only airline that’s seen an increase in passenger volume at McCarran through August compared to the first eight months of 2019. Frontier recorded 1.8 million in the first eight months of 2019 but has carried 2.3 million passengers this year, good for a 27 percent increase.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.