Passenger traffic at the Las Vegas airport fell more than 6% in September as Canadian travel and overall tourism continue to dip ahead of the expected release of gaming revenue and visitation numbers by the end of the week.
Harry Reid International Airport reported Tuesday that 4.45 million passengers passed through the airport in September, down 6.4% from the 4.75 million a year ago. For the year, passenger traffic at 41.5 million is down nearly 5% or just under two million passengers.
International travel was down 13.5% compared to 6.1% for domestic passenger counts. For the year, domestic travel is down 5% compared to 3.3% for international passenger counts. Domestic travel has been hindered by Spirit Airlines cutting routes nationwide, with passenger counts down nearly 46% in September. By contrast, Southwest Airlines, which is down only 0.3% for the year, rose 5.5% in September. United rose 5.4%. Delta fell 2.1%, while American Airlines was down 5.3%.
Canadian travel continued to take a hit with Porter Airlines down 45.9%, Westjet down 44.3%, and Air Canada down 18.4%.
Passenger counts on Mexican airlines were mixed. Vivaaerobus was up 28.5%, while Aeromexico fell 11.2%.
From Europe and Asia, travel was up, with British Airways nearly 10% higher, Virgin Atlantic, up 1.6%, KLM up 46.8%, Korean Airlines up 25.9%, and Edelweiss up 22.4%.