Las Vegas – As members of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority recently learned, international air travel capacity to Las Vegas will have fully recovered from the pandemic by the fourth quarter.
By year’s end, international air traffic capacity will have reached 104 percent of pre-pandemic levels, with flights from all destinations worldwide except Canada exceeding full capacity – and Canada will be at 99 percent, said Joel Van Over, senior director at Atlanta-based Ailevon, an international aviation development firm and airline development adviser to the LVCVA.
Van Over, who will advocate for additional air transport on behalf of Las Vegas at the World Routes Conference 2024 in the Kingdom of Bahrain in October, said new flights from several international airlines would contribute to a record number of flights from abroad.
Some additional flights announced or added in the summer and to be offered in the fall are among the routes that will increase capacity to 89 percent of pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter.
Recent major airline service successes for Las Vegas include:
– New service to and from London Gatwick International Airport with new airline Norse Atlantic, flying to Las Vegas from September 12.
– New nonstop winter service to and from Dublin, Ireland, with Aer Lingus, another new airline in Las Vegas, starting October 25.
— After 18 years of offering flights to and from Las Vegas in Seoul, South Korea, Korean Airlines will expand its five weekly flights to a year-round daily service this fall.
– Canadian discount airline Porter Airlines, which launched service to and from Toronto in March, will launch new nonstop flights to Montreal and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada’s capital, in the fall.
– Mexican discount airline Volaris has launched nonstop flights to and from Tijuana in Baja California province. While the connection to the border city near San Diego may seem insignificant, Van Over pointed out that Volaris has an extensive flight network to other destinations from its hub in Tijuana.
The additional international boost has led to a 23% increase in long-haul capacity, with 103,000 more long-haul seats being added each year to the 454,000 already coming onto the market.
While international flights are important because visitors generally stay longer and spend more money here, Van Over said the number of domestic flights has also increased.
He said 10 other airlines operating domestic routes had announced or launched 16 new routes, five of them into previously unserved markets, adding a total of 698,000 additional seats per year at Harry Reid International Airport.
Van Over said that CES, the massive consumer electronics show held in Las Vegas each January, offers opportunities for special overseas flights. He said nonstop flights to and from Paris and Tokyo are planned to carry CES delegates and that American Airlines has pledged to provide additional flights to and from London for the show.
“This is a great opportunity for us to expand our flight connections because we’re getting a lot of special things for CES,” Van Over said. “We’ll be offering nonstop service from Paris as we have in the past, and additional segments from Seoul. American Airlines reached out to us and asked us a lot of questions. We worked with them and they announced that they’ll also be offering nonstop service from London. It’s great to have another airline coming from London to support the show.”
While LVCVA board members were pleased with the news about the airline’s capacity, they also raised questions about the obvious problem: the need for an additional airport south of the city, which Reid officials said won’t be available until 2037 at the earliest.
Airport officials are currently working to obtain environmental permits for the Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport, which is planned to be built in the Ivanpah Valley south of Jean.
Van Over said Reid and the various airlines have adjusted flight schedules and made other arrangements to squeeze as much capacity as possible out of Reid, which is heading for another record year for passenger numbers.
For example, during the renovation, one of the gates that was previously only intended for one type of aircraft could also be available for other aircraft in the future, said Van Over.
In addition, airlines have changed their flight schedules to make arrivals and departures more consistent and thus accommodate more passengers.
In a separate resolution at the LVCVA/s meeting, board members unanimously approved the expenditure of $150,000 to Conex Exhibition Services for the design of an exhibition booth at the World Route Development Forum in Bahrain from October 6-8.
