| 15 percent plunge in Las Vegas passenger count predicted |
| By Richard N. Velotta / Staff Writer |
ASPEN, Colo. - A major aviation consultant group says McCarran International Airport’s passenger count will fall by 15 percent in the next five years.
Mike Boyd, who heads Evergreen, Colo.-based Boyd Group International, predicts enplanements at McCarran to drop to 19.2 million a year by 2014. In 2007 the airport had 23.6 million enplanements, and it is projected to have 22.6 million this year.
The projection was detailed by Boyd at his company’s annual aviation forecast conference last week.
If accurate, the forecast indicates the passenger count would decrease to 2004 levels at McCarran.
Among 23 hub airports nationwide, McCarran will rank 19th in enplanement growth through 2014, Boyd said. If the projections are accurate, McCarran would fall from the sixth to seventh busiest airport in the nation by 2014, trailing Atlanta, Chicago’s O’Hare International, Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Los Angeles and the new No. 6, Detroit.
Boyd said the forecast is based on airline capacity cuts expected for the Las Vegas market and the reluctance of some carriers to increase flights because of the strength of its busiest operator, Southwest Airlines.
Full story at inbusinesslasvegas.com
