Las Vegas air traffic continues to slide, despite international rebound

Harry Reid International Airport continued to see passenger traffic fall in July, even as international arrivals and departures showed a modest rebound. The Clark County Department of Aviation announced on Wednesday that the airport recorded 4.4 million passengers last month, a 7.6 percent drop compared with July 2025. Domestic travel accounted for 4 million of those travelers, representing an 8.7 percent decline from the same period a year earlier. Officials cited the cessation of Spirit Airlines service in May as the primary driver of the downturn, noting that while other carriers have added flights on some of the vacated routes, overall capacity remains below 2025 levels. International traffic bucked the downward trend for the second straight month, with airlines bringing 296,499 passengers to Las Vegas—a 6 percent increase over July 2025. For the first seven months of 2026, the airport logged 30.2 million total passengers, 6.9 percent fewer than during the same span in 2025. Domestic passengers numbered 27.8 million, down 6.8 percent, while international travelers totaled 1.9 million, a decline of 8.6 percent year‑over‑year. Among the five largest carriers operating at Reid, Delta Air Lines was the only airline to report fewer passengers in the January‑July period. Frontier Airlines, which absorbed much of Spirit’s former customer base, posted a 16.6 percent increase to 2.6 million passengers. Southwest Airlines, the market leader, recorded 12.6 million passengers, a slight gain of 0.2 percent over the prior year. On the international front, two carriers posted double‑digit growth: Air Canada rose 11.5 percent to 40,701 passengers, and Mexican discounter Volaris jumped 38.6 percent to 39,872 passengers. Conversely, WestJet fell 20.2 percent to 35,344 passengers, offsetting some of the gains made by other overseas operators. The Nevada Gaming Control Board and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority are slated to release additional visitation metrics and July casino‑gaming figures on Thursday.