Officials OK funds for aviation forum, foresee more Las Vegas traffic
The last time Las Vegas hosted a Routes event, the number of airline seats coming into McCarran International Airport expanded by 17 percent.
On Tuesday, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors approved spending $490,000 to host the Routes Americas Development Forum in February 2017.
The event will bring executives from airports and airlines from North, Central and South America to Las Vegas to negotiate airline routes between cities.
Because it’s a regional event and not a global conference such as the one Las Vegas hosted in 2013, the impact is not expected to be as significant. When the World Routes Conference was in Las Vegas, organizers said the host city usually sees at least a 10 percent bump in new seats to the market as airline executives see the destination first-hand.
Cathy Tull, senior vice president of marketing for the authority, said from the time World Routes was announced for Las Vegas in 2011 to today, domestic seats into the market increased by 2 percent and international seats by 28 percent.
When Las Vegas hosted World Routes, it was the first time the global organization staged an event in North America. Since the conference, Las Vegas has secured new routes from Zurich, Switzerland, on Edelweiss Air; Stockholm, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark, on Norwegian Air Shuttle; Anchorage, Alaska, and Salt Lake City on Alaska Airlines; and Des Moines, Iowa, and Flint, Mich., on Southwest Airlines.
World Routes drew record attendance for conference organizers.
“McCarran International Airport greatly anticipates the arrival of Routes Americas in 2017,” Clark County Aviation Director Rosemary Vassiliadis said in a statement issued after the authority board’s approval.
“This event provides us with a wonderful opportunity to showcase Las Vegas before key airline decision-makers and it will allow attendees to see first-hand Clark County’s exceptional airport, including its state-of-the-art technology and expanded U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities,” she said.
Board members also voted to participate in this year’s World Routes Development Forum by allocating $158,000 for a trade show presence at the event in Durban, South Africa. It’s scheduled Sept. 19-22.
Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find @RickVelotta on Twitter.
