Harry Reid International Airport (IATA: LAS, ICAO: KLAS, FAA LID: LAS), formerly McCarran International Airport until 2021, is an international airport serving Las Vegas as well as the surrounding Las Vegas Valley in Nevada, United States. It is located approximately five miles (8 km; 4 nmi) south of downtown Las Vegas, in the unincorporated area of Paradise, and covers 2,800 acres (4.4 sq mi; 11.3 km2) of land. Clark County owns the facility and its Department of Aviation, under purview of the Clark County Commission oversees airport operations. In December 2021, the Clark County Commission renamed the airport to Harry Reid International Airport in honor of former U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, citing a desire to reflect community values better and move away from the legacy of its previous namesake. The airport has four runways and two main passenger terminals (Terminal 1 and Terminal 3) with a total of five concourses; the terminal areas are served by an automated people mover system that connects the central terminal with gate concourses. Reid is one of the few U.S. commercial airports with legalized gaming on airport premises; along with Reno–Tahoe International Airport, it retains slot machines in its passenger terminals under Nevada gaming laws. The airport opened in January 1943 as Alamo Field and initially catered to general aviation. In December 1948, it was rechristened for U.S. senator Pat McCarran, and commercial airlines shifted to it from the Las Vegas Army Airfield. Passenger counts increased in the 1950s as the Strip expanded, leading to the construction of a new terminal. McCarran was among the first to implement radio-frequency identification of baggage. Terminal 3 was added in 2012, and the airport was renamed in honor of Senator Reid in 2021. Reid is served by over 30 airlines and is an operating base for Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines, JSX, and Southwest Airlines. Southwest became its dominant carrier in the 1990s. In 2024, over 58.4 million passengers passed through the airport. Reid has international flights to cities in Asia, Europe, and North America.
History
Origins George Crockett, a flight instructor, built Alamo Field in 1942 on the site currently occupied by Harry Reid Airport. Crockett named it in honor of his forefather Davy Crockett, who had fought in the Battle of the Alamo. The airfield opened in January 1943. It catered to general aviation and included three gravel runways, a flight school, and a terminal building. Meanwhile, all commercial airlines flew into the Las Vegas Army Airfield. They shared the facility with the Army Air Forces, which had been operating an air base there since the attack on Pearl Harbor. The base closed in 1946. With the onset of the Cold War, the military said it was amenable to reopening the base, but it wanted the airlines to move elsewhere. Crockett was willing to let them use his airfield, so the Clark County Commission entered into negotiations with him. In the meantime, the county held a bond election to fund construction work that would enable Alamo Field to handle commercial operations. Proponents of the bond issue, who included the chamber of commerce and casino executives, sought the economic benefits of both an air base and a modern airport capable of serving the increasing numbers of tourists that they expected to arrive. Voters approved the bond in 1947. With the help of U.S. senator Pat McCarran of Nevada, the county finalized a deal with Crockett to purchase his airfield the following year. On December 19, 1948, the airport was renamed McCarran Field and began receiving passenger flights.
Expansion The growth of the Las Vegas casino industry during the 1950s fueled a rise in air traffic; the city went from receiving 36,000 passengers in 1948 to nearly one million in 1959. In September 1960, United Airlines became the first carrier to offer jet flights to Las Vegas. The airport was ill-equipped to handle the increasing passenger counts and the advent of commercial jetliners. Consequently, the county built a new terminal, which opened in March 1963. Another expansion project, which included adding Concourses A and B and lengthening the runways, ended in 1974. However, traffic levels had already rendered the project insufficient by the time it was completed. Airport officials therefore prepared for further expansion. The deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 led to an increase in the number of carriers at McCarran and prompted officials to accelerate their expansion plans. In October 1985, a central terminal, Concourse C, and a people mover between the two buildings opened. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, America West Airlines was the busiest airline at McCarran. The carrier began offering cheap night flights to Las Vegas in 1986. It ultimately developed a hub at the airport that functioned between 10 pm and 2 am every night. The strategy capitalized on the fact that Las Vegas was open 24 hours a day and enabled the airline to decrease costs. America West charged low fares because it was the only carrier operating such a large number of flights at that time of night. Most of its customers were tourists, while the remainder were changing planes. By the late 1990s, Southwest Airlines had overtaken America West as McCarran's largest carrier and occupied all the gates in Concourse C. According to contemporary reports, Southwest emphasized high-frequency service, low fares, and cooperative marketing with local resorts in the Las Vegas market. Multiple projects were finished during the 1990s. The Charter/International Terminal, later renamed Terminal 2, opened in December 1991. A cargo center was dedicated two years later. In 1994, a tunnel beneath the east–west runways that linked the airport to the Las Vegas Beltway opened. A nine-level parking facility was completed in 1996, and in June 1998, the first two wings of Concourse D were inaugurated. McCarran also gained its first scheduled flights to Europe and Asia. In November 1996, Condor launched a route to Cologne, and Northwest Airlines commenced service to its hub at Tokyo's Narita Airport in June 1998. With the backing of two casinos, National Airlines set up a hub in Las Vegas the following year. The company specialized in low-fare flights to cities on the East Coast. Other casinos responded by arranging package deals with larger airlines. This and other factors led to National's demise in 2002.
Innovation and new terminal
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