Las Vegas airport led nation in flight delays, FAA report says

LAS VEGAS — Harry Reid International Airport had the most flight delays of any major U.S. airport in the 2023 fiscal year, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a recent report.

The FAA, which uses data collected from air traffic controllers nationwide, said there were 29,763 flight delays at Reid that fiscal year — more than 9,500 more delays that the second-highest airport, New York’s LaGuardia International Airport. The Reid total also is more than twice the number recorded in the 2022 fiscal year and more than five times greater than the number averaged between fiscal years 2017-19.

A Reid representative said that many factors come into play for the numerous flight delays at Las Vegas’ airport, including a major runway renovation.

“It includes weather conditions, not just in Southern Nevada but across the nation that can create a domino effect with flights arriving and departing at LAS,” said Monika Bertaki, a spokeswoman for the Clark County Department of Aviation.

Among 30 core airports nationwide, Reid International had the worst performance involving delays of 15 minutes or more. The four worst airports behind Reid were LaGuardia (20,019 delays in fiscal 2023), Newark, New Jersey’s Liberty International (13,729 delays), San Francisco International (12,303) and Denver International (9,570).

The least number of delays in fiscal 2023: Salt Lake City International with 231 delays.

The FAA reported a total 153,312 delays among the 30 core airports.

While delays at Reid International have soared over the past year, the number of delays nationwide have declined by 50.6 percent from a year ago, the FAA said.

On-time performance has improved even as the number of flight operations nationwide has increased, the FAA said.

The report said the number of operations rose by 3.8 percent to 12.2 million. An arrival and a departure each count as an operation.