Las Vegas’ McCarran airport sets monthly passenger record in July

Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport set a July passenger traffic record, seeing 4.5 million people pass through its gates last month.

July’s total also marks the second time McCarran saw more than 4.5 million people pass through the airport in a single month, the Clark County Department of Aviation announced Wednesday.

Last month’s total is a 2 percent increase over July 2018’s 4.4 million passenger and brings 2019’s total to 29.8 million people, a 3 percent increase over the first seven months last year.

Frontier Airlines saw the largest year-over-year increase with a 37 percent jump, with 263,290 passengers in July, up from 191,682 passengers in July 2018.

Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines also saw a sizable increase compared with the same month last year, seeing 507,147 passengers, representing a 32.1 percent increase.

The airline is up 24.6 percent year-to-date, seeing 2.9 million passengers already this year.

Southwest Airlines, McCarran’s busiest carrier by volume, saw its passenger count dip in July, serving 1.5 million people, a 7.8 percent dip over July 2018’s 1.6 million passengers. For the year, Southwest is down 2.1 percent, with 10.4 million passengers through July.

The sizable drop is attributed to the grounding of Boeing 737 MAX jets, according to Dan Landson, Southwest spokesman.The MAX jets were grounded worldwide in March after a pair of deadly crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in November and March, respectively, killing 346 people.

American Airlines also saw its passenger count fall in July, seeing 381,737 people, a 6.4 percent drop compared with the 407,898 passengers seen in July last year.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.