Airfare to Las Vegas soared by 20 percent after Iran war onset

A sharp rise in airfare, particularly on flights to and from Las Vegas, is discouraging leisure travel and has resulted in a decline in visitation, the head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority told state leaders meeting in Nevada’s September Economic Forum.

LVCVA President and CEO Steve Hill testified that domestic airfares were up an average 12 percent in the first four months of 2026, but that fares climbed by more than 20 percent on average on flights to and from Harry Reid International Airport.

The end result is that visitation to Las Vegas is flat at 22.8 million after seven months and has been down three out of those seven months since the start of the year.

Conventions unaffected

Hill said during Wednesday’s meeting that the climb in fares hasn’t had as much effect on attendees of conventions in Las Vegas, likely because travelers are using expense accounts instead of their own money for travel.

Convention visitation is up 11.2 percent from a year ago near a record-breaking pace to 3.9 million in the first seven months of 2026. The Las Vegas record for convention attendance was 6.6 million in 2017.

Hill said rising jet fuel prices due to the spiking cost of oil since the war in Iran’s onset are largely blamed by airlines as the reason for higher ticket prices.

Hill said LVCVA research into ticket pricing show that each domestic airline operating in Las Vegas have shown different pricing strategies in the months since the conflict broke out Feb. 28.

LVCVA research indicates there were four consecutive months of slight price increases from November 2025 to February 2026 after three straight months of fare declines. But the biggest increases occurred in March and April when prices rose 12 percent each month.

“The airlines are telling us right now that this is not affecting demand,” Hill told the Economic Forum panel. “That’s an interesting thing. It’s not, I don’t think, what any of us would expect. And frankly, it’s not necessarily what we would expect to see going forward.”

The LVCVA’s detailed review of airline fares lays most of the blame on so-called value airlines that have raised fares to compensate for the higher jet fuel costs.

The increases affect Las Vegas differently based on the market share they have.

Value airline ticket prices

Southwest Airlines, which has a 37 percent market share in Las Vegas, saw fares increase by 18 percent, largely the result of new pricing strategies ordered by company management.

Among some of the other value airlines raising prices were Frontier Airlines (9 percent market share, 23 percent fare increase), Allegiant Air (5 percent market share, 23 percent fare increase), Spirit Airlines – which shut down in early May — (4 percent market share, 6 percent fare increase) and relative newcomer Breeze Airways (1 percent market share, 11 percent fare increase).

Some of traditional legacy air carriers – Delta, United and American – had single-digit percentage increases. Only one airline, Jet Blue Airways, with a 3 percent market share in Las Vegas, reduced fare prices, by 10 percent, the LVCVA data show.

Although gasoline prices also have soared, particularly in Las Vegas’ largest drive market of Southern California, the visitation impact hasn’t been nearly as great. Traffic counts at the Nevada-California border ran 6.3 percent ahead of a year ago at an average 45,183 daily vehicles.

But highway counts from Arizona are down 3.7 percent over seven months to 16,802 daily vehicles.

Trouble with Canada

On the international side, Hill said the continuing slump in visitation from Canada is still hurting Las Vegas, although Reid produced a glimmer of hope in July when international arrivals and departures were up 6 percent for the month.

“International is playing a larger role almost solely because of Canada,” Hill told the panel, “and Canada is down 30 percent. It has been our largest source of international visitation.

“The drop in visitation from Canada equals our visitation from Australia. So it’s a chunk. It’s 10 percent to 12 percent of our visitor reduction. It’s a big portion of what’s missing here in Las Vegas right now.”

Economic Forum members also received tourism reports from Mike Larragueta, president and CEO of the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority, and Rafael Villanueva, CEO of the Division of Tourism for Nevada’s Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs.

Many of Southern Nevada’s visitation woes are mirrored in Northern Nevada, and Villanueva said his office monitors visitation to rural Nevada, which are dependent on the success of Las Vegas and Reno to thrive.