Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International Airport in May recorded its third busiest month in history, led by a resurgence in international travel and a one-million-passenger increase over May 2021. It came up only 32,000 passengers short of the all-time record set in October 2019.
That’s a good sign ahead of Thursday’s release of May’s gaming revenue numbers by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Nevada has reported 14 consecutive months of $1 billion and higher in gaming revenue.
There are concerns about visitation and customer spending this summer amid high gas prices and inflation. Las Vegas room rates are starting to drop in a sign of reduced demand. Despite the high airport numbers, travel from California decreased in the most recent report from April.
In May, the airport, however, reported 4.577 million passed through. That number includes those who arrived at, department from, or connected through Las Vegas on to another destination.
The number falls 13,000 shy of the second busiest month in history at 4.590 million in May 2019, prior to the pandemic. The number-one month, October 2019, recorded 4.609 million passengers.
May 2022’s passenger count jumped 30% from the 3.52 million passengers in May 2021.
May’s number was aided by 240,199 in international passengers going through Harry Reid. There were 200,113 in April, 154,104 in March, and 100,233 in February.
May registered the largest international segment since the pandemic. It’s still short of the 337,171 in May 2019 prior to the pandemic.
For the year,19.59 million passengers went through Harry Reid, 61.6% higher than the 12.1 million passengers through May 2021.
