Las Vegas is having a big post-pandemic comeback, setting records for gambling wins (by the house) and airport traffic, and with visitor numbers edging closer to pre-pandemic 2019’s level, driven in part by a full calendar of trade shows and sports.
The airport numbers are running high enough to push talk of a second airport for the area onto the front burner. Harry Reid International saw 52.6 million passengers in 2022, a million more than previous-record 2019. In December, it handled 5 million passengers for the first time ever, and local officials say it will hit its maximum of about 60 million passengers by 2030.
A project for a second airport was proposed in 1998, and would be located about 30 miles south of the city in the Ivanpah Valley on land owned by the Bureau of Land Management. But officials for Clark County and Las Vegas say the earliest a new airport could be in operation there would be 2037, leaving questions about what would happen between 2030 and 2037.
