Las Vegas airport sees more than 2M passenger decline in March amid coronavirus fallout

Las Vegas’s McCarran International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the country, serviced 53 percent fewer flights in March of this year than it did in March 2019, as the coronavirus pandemic has severely crippled the airline industry.

Data released by the airport this week showed that 2.3 million fewer travelers boarded flights last month, according to USA Today. 

Southwest Airlines, the dominant carrier at the airport, serviced 1.6 million Las Vegas flyers in March 2019. This March, that number dropped to around 600,000 passengers.

According to the airline, it will only operate 2,000 daily flights in May, less than 60 percent of its usual operating capacity.

Due to the lack of flights coming and going, McCarran International Airport completely shuttered two of its concourses in early April.

“As passenger activity has declined, McCarran officials are continually evaluating the airport’s infrastructure and operations to identify ways to maximize efficiencies and implement cost-savings measures,” an airport official told the paper.

While some states such as Georgia are beginning to reopen their economies, travel bans in the U.S. are still in place for much of the world, including China and Europe.

Delta Air Lines, which has grounded over 650 of its planes, has reported that passenger counts are still down by 95 percent from what they usually are for this time of year.