McCarran International Airport (IATA: LAS, ICAO: KLAS, FAA LID: LAS) is the principal commercial airport serving Las Vegas and Clark County, Nevada, United States. The airport is located five miles (8 km) south of the central business district of Las Vegas, in the unincorporated area of Paradise in Clark County. It covers an area of 2,800 acres (1,100 ha) and has four runways. McCarran is owned by Clark County and operated by the Clark County Department of Aviation (DOA). McCarran Airport serves as a hub for Great Lakes Airlines. It serves as a focus city for Allegiant Air and Southwest Airlines; McCarran is also the largest operation base for both Allegiant and Southwest. The airport became a crew and maintenance base for Spirit Airlines in February 2012. It is named after the former Nevada Senator Pat McCarran.
In 2010, McCarran ranked 22nd in the world for passenger traffic, with 39,757,359 passengers passing through the terminal. The airport ranked 9th in the world for aircraft movements with 505,591 takeoffs and landings. McCarran and the DOA are completely self-sufficient enterprises, requiring no money from the County's general fund.
As of November 2009, Southwest Airlines operated more flights out of McCarran than at any other airport. Southwest also carries the most passengers in and out of McCarran. Southwest currently operates out of 21 gates, primarily in Concourse C. Since 2008, Canadian airline WestJet has become the largest international carrier at McCarran.
The top five largest scheduled airlines at McCarran in number of passengers carried in the first 11 months of 2009 are Southwest Airlines (38.3%), US Airways/US Airways Express (11.8%), United Airlines/United Express (6.9%), Delta Air Lines/Delta Connection (5.6%), and American Airlines (5.5%).
McCarran Airport has more than 1,234 slot machines throughout the airport terminals. The slots are owned and operated by Michael Gaughan Airport Slots. Reno/Tahoe International Airport also has 251 gambling machines both airside and landside.
Read more about McCarran International Airport: History, Terminals, Airlines and Destinations, Transportation, Future, Howard W. Cannon Aviation Museum, Airport Public Art, Airline Lounges, Media Appearances
Famous quotes containing the word airport:
“Airplanes are invariably scheduled to depart at such times as 7:54, 9:21 or 11:37. This extreme specificity has the effect on the novice of instilling in him the twin beliefs that he will be arriving at 10:08, 1:43 or 4:22, and that he should get to the airport on time. These beliefs are not only erroneous but actually unhealthy.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)