Passenger traffic at Las Vegas airport virtually unchanged in April

Passenger traffic was flat again at McCarran International Airport in April with statistics showing a familiar pattern for the city: slight international growth nearly offsetting a dip in domestic traffic.

There were 3.549 million passengers to and from McCarran in April compared with 3.554 million in April 2012, a 0.2 percent decline, according to the Clark County Aviation Department.

For the first four months of 2013, passenger traffic was down 1.1 percent to 13.3 million from the same period a year ago.

International arrivals were up 3.8 percent for the month to 264,444, while domestic travel to McCarran was down 0.7 percent. The number of helicopter air tour passengers was up 8 percent for the month.

Market leader Southwest Airlines continued to dominate in Las Vegas with 1.4 million passengers, a 5.1 percent increase over April 2012. Delta and American also had improved results, thanks to additional flights and larger aircraft to the market compared with last year.

United and Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air had lower counts than a year ago with a reduced schedule.

Sun Country, which added flights since April 2012, showed the biggest percentage increase in passengers among domestic carriers at 25.3 percent.

Hawaiian Airlines, which decreased the number of flights to the market and now has increased competition on its routes from Allegiant, was off 24 percent from last year.

Internationally, five carriers had double-digit percentage increases over April 2012 and three carriers — Copa Airlines, Interjet and Magnicharters — are new to the Las Vegas market since then.

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