LAS VEGAS — International air travel capacity to Las Vegas will fully recover from the pandemic by the fourth quarter, members of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority learned recently.
By the end of the year, international air capacity will have reached 104 percent of pre-pandemic levels with flights from every global destination 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 company and the LVCVA’s airline development consultant.
Van Over, who will work on Las Vegas’ behalf for additional airlift at the 2024 World Routes Conference in the Kingdom of Bahrain in October, said new flights from several international air carriers are contributing to a record number of flights from foreign countries.
Some additional flights announced or started during the summer and that are coming in the fall are among the routes that will lift third-quarter capacity to 89 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
Among the big air service wins for Las Vegas lately:
- New service to and from London’s Gatwick International Airport on new-to-Las Vegas carrier Norse Atlantic beginning Sept. 12.
- New winter nonstop service to and from Dublin, Ireland, on another new-to-Las Vegas carrier, Aer Lingus, beginning Oct. 25.
- After 18 years of flying to Las Vegas to and from Seoul, South Korea, Korean Airlines will be expanding its five flights a week to daily year-around service in the fall.
- Canadian discounter Porter Airlines, which inaugurated service to and from Toronto in March, will add new nonstops to Montreal and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada’s capital city, in the fall.
- Mexican discounter Volaris began nonstop routes to and from Tijuana, Baja California. While having service to the border town near San Diego may seem insignificant, Van Over noted that Volaris has a vast network of flights to other destinations from its Tijuana hub.
The added international lift has resulted in a 23 percent increase in long-haul capacity with 103,000 annual long-haul seats being added to 454,000 existing seats coming into the market.
While international flying is important because visitors generally stay longer and spend more money when here, Van Over said domestic flights also have been on the rise.
He said 10 other airlines that fly domestic routes announced or started 16 routes, five of them to previously unserved markets. In total, those will add 698,000 annual seats arriving at Harry Reid International Airport.
Van Over said CES, the massive consumer electronics show that arrives in Las Vegas every January, provides opportunities for special overseas flights. He said nonstop flights are planned to and from Paris and Tokyo to CES delegates and American Airlines has pledged to add flights to and from London for the show.
“It’s a great opportunity for us in air service development because we get a lot of special things for CES,” Van Over said. “We will have nonstop service from Paris, like we have in the past, and extra segments from Seoul. American Airlines reached out to us and asked a bunch of questions and we worked with them and they have announced that they are also going to be flying nonstop service from London. So great to see yet another airline coming in from London in support of the show.”
While LVCVA board members were delighted with the airline capacity news, they did ask about the elephant in the room — the need for a new supplemental airport south of town that Reid officials have said won’t be available until 2037 at the earliest.
Airport officials currently are working on getting environmental approvals for the Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport, which would be built in the Ivanpah Valley south of Jean.
Van Over said Reid and the various air carriers have made adjustments to schedules and made other arrangements to squeeze as much capacity out of Reid, which is on track for another record year for passengers, as possible.
For example, Van Over noted that renovations could lead to one of the gates that can only accommodate one aircraft type to be available for other planes in the future.
Airlines also have made changes in schedules to smooth out arrivals and departures so that more passengers can be accommodated.
