LAS Airport

Half of visitors to the Las Vegas strip will arrive by air into McCarran, making it a big winner for Nevada’s economy. The first and last impression of Las Vegas may not be at the table games or swim-up bars, but in the terminals of LAS.

Location
LAS is the chief commercial airport serving the counties of Las Vegas and Clark in the state of Nevada. A mere five miles from downtown Las Vegas, passengers don’t have to travel far to arrive in Sin City.

History
A descendent of the real Davy Crockett, George Crockett established the Alamo Airport in 1942, which would eventually be McCarran International. Only a few years later, Clark County bought the airport and renamed it Clark County Public Airport, but not for long. That same year, yet another name change came about and McCarran Field was its new identity. At that time, 1.5 million passengers were passing through the airport, and soon the number of airlines serving McCarran was doubled to 14.

As with most airports, expansion was unavoidable. It came about in the late 1980’s, and again in the late 90’s with the surge of airline travel. A baggage-tracking system was implemented in the airport as of 2003, and LAS was one of the first airports to use Radio-frequency identification tags on its luggage.

It is estimated that McCarran will reach a predicted capacity around the year 2017, and therefore Ivanpah Airport is in the works to act as a supplemental airport for relief.