More growth forecast for Las Vegas airport in 2025

Coming off a record 2024 in airline development, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s aviation consultant says there’s even more growth in the forecast for 2025.

In a report to the LVCVA’s board of directors Tuesday, Joel Van Over, senior director of Ailevon Pacific Aviation Consultants, said seat capacity on flights going to and from Harry Reid International Airport will increase by 1.9 percent to nearly 100,000 daily in the first four months of the year.

That’s up from the roughly 97,000 daily seats entering the market in 2024.

“We have more opportunities for people to get here in an airline seat than ever before,” Van Over said in his 20-minute presentation.

There were several air service development landmarks last year:

— In addition to record capacity, there was a record level of passengers starting or stopping in Las Vegas, referred to as “origination and destination” passengers.

— There were five signature wins in international service. Aer Lingus began nonstop service between Las Vegas and Dublin, Ireland. Virgin Atlantic Airways restarted nonstop flights between Manchester, England, and Las Vegas. Norse Atlantic Airlines began nonstop flights to and from London’s Gatwick International Airport. Korean Air and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines expanded their flights from several times a week to daily to and from Seoul, South Korea, and Amsterdam, respectively.

— A record 170 nonstop routes from Las Vegas were available and in 2024, the city didn’t lose a single route.

Reid set a record of 29.8 million inbound seats in prepandemic 2019, the highest number since 2007 when effects of the Great Recession began. Since 2019, annual seat capacity has steadily climbed and hit 35.4 million in 2024. That’s a 0.9 percent increase from 2023 and 19 percent, or 5.6 million seats, more than in 2019.

“It doesn’t sound like much to be up 1 percent, but when you consider we’re one of the top 10 airports in the United States, 1 percent growth is actually quite substantial,” Van Over said.

TSA increases

Another measure of growth in capacity is shown in Transportation Security Administration screenings. Van Over said 497,600 more TSA screenings occurred in 2024 than 2023 with totals higher than the previous year in every month except October. That led to a record output of screenings in 2024 of 25.6 million.

The data concludes that more people are using Las Vegas as a starting or ending point than are using the airport as a stopover for flights to other cities.

Compared with other airports nationwide, Reid, at 3.5 percent, had the fourth-highest growth rate by percentage over the past five years, trailing Miami International (5 percent), Denver International (4.3 percent) and Charlotte Douglas International in North Carolina (3.5 percent). Those airports serve as hubs for several major airlines. But Las Vegas’ five-year growth rate was higher than airports in Orlando, Dallas-Fort Worth, Phoenix and New York City. Some airports, including Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles International and Hartfield Jackson Atlanta International, had percentage declines over five years.

Van Over said Reid gained 17 new domestic markets over the past year, six previously unserved. He explained that starting service to new markets is a big win because it builds new customer bases.

And the airlines didn’t bail on Las Vegas.

“A lot of times we see airlines try things and then they fall out, but from where we started in 2023 to the end of 2024, we didn’t lose a single market,” Van Over said.

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