McCarran reports busiest June traffic on record

A Hainan Airline flight from Beijing arrives at McCarran International Airport on Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2017. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

McCarran International Airport logged its busiest June on record with with more than 4.19 million airline passengers, topping a record set last year by nearly 64,000 travelers, the Clark County Department of Aviation reported Wednesday.

June marked the fourth consecutive month that the bustling Las Vegas airport recorded more than 4 million passengers, airport spokeswoman Christine Crews said.

Passenger traffic rose by a relatively flat 1.5 percent compared to June 2016, despite a small dip in international travel. However, Rosemary Vassiliadis, director of Clark County’s aviation department, said earlier this year that she believes McCarran International is on track to break the airport’s record of 47.8 million airline passengers, set in 2007.

More than 3.8 million travelers boarded or arrived on domestic flights last month, a 1.9 percent increase from a year earlier. International flights arriving or departing McCarran carried 307,962 travelers, a 1.7 percent drop from a year earlier.

Halfway into 2017, 23.78 million passengers flew in or out of the nation’s eighth-busiest airport, a 2.2 percent increase from the same period last year.

Air Canada had a 1.8 percent decrease in traffic with 69,825 passengers last month, while Canadian carrier WestJet was down 1.4 percent with 74,457 passengers.

Virgin Atlantic Airways reported a 1.7 percent drop in traffic with 29,762 passengers. British Airways carried 27,771 passengers in June, a 5.2 percent decrease from last year, while British competitor Thomas Cook Airlines was up 3.7 percent with 16,280 passengers.

Korean Air was up 10.9 percent with 9,241 passengers. Chinese budget carrier Hainan, which launched service in December, reported 4,949 passengers.

Mexican carrier Interjet reported a 45.5 percent jump to 13,274 passengers in June, while Aeromexico had a 36.2 percent decline to 16,504 passengers. Volaris reported a 13.9 percent drop in June to 15,489 passengers compared with the same period a year earlier.

Contact Art Marroquin at amarroquin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Follow @AMarroquin_LV on Twitter.