Las Vegas airport sees steepest plunge of 2025 on November passengers

Harry Reid International Airport had this year’s steepest plunge in monthly passenger numbers in November and even though international arrivals and departures were off 21.2 percent, it doesn’t appear the drop-off had anything to do with Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix attendance.

The airport serving Las Vegas on Tuesday said passenger traffic was down 9.6 percent from November 2024 to 4.3 million.

The 9.6 percent decline was worse than in October when traffic was off 8.2 percent and it was the 10th straight month of declining passenger totals this year. The last time there was a year-over-year monthly increase was in January when totals were up just 0.4 percent.

For the year, passenger totals are down 5.5 percent to 50.6 million. December’s totals are expected to be reported in late January.

Of November’s total, international arrivals and departures were down 21.2 percent to 239,500 for the month.

But most of the decline was not from air carriers serving European destinations – there instead was a big drop from Canada.

There was a decline of 40 percent in the number of passengers on Air Canada, 33.9 percent on Porter Airlines, 29.7 percent from Canadian discounter WestJet and an 87 percent drop on ultralow-fare Flair Airlines. Between those four airlines, there were 90,691 passengers in November compared with 151,443 in November a year ago.

Tourism experts have theorized that travel from Canada has declined as a result of a boycott against the United States over President Donald Trump’s international tariff policies and Trump’s remarks about making Canada the United States’ 51st state.

The major European carriers were flat or up slightly in November, with traffic on British Airways up 0.2 percent to 18,987, Virgin Atlantic up 1.4 percent to 13,513, KLM up 5 percent to 6,898 and Aer Lingus up 9 percent to 5,459.

Reid numbers only reflect nonstop flights to Las Vegas from foreign destinations so Formula One fans could have arrived on connecting or charter flights.

Domestically, passenger counts were down 8.8 percent to 4 million passengers in November.

Market leader Southwest Airlines continued to pace arrivals and departures, up 3.4 percent in November to 1.8 million. Over 11 months, Southwest traffic is up 0.6 percent to 20 million.

Only two domestic carriers among the top five serving Reid were up in November, Southwest and No. 3 United, which was up 7.9 percent to 382,748 for the month. United also is up 3.3 percent for the year with 4 million passengers.

The biggest domestic increases were from Seattle-based Alaska Airlines, up 45.4 percent to 251,871 passengers, and New York-based JetBlue, up 23.4 percent to 82,279. Alaska Airlines completed its acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines in September 2024, but operated under their own brands for most of 2025.

Spirit Airlines continues to suffer financial woes and passenger counts to Las Vegas in November were down 69.9 percent to 190,845. The Florida-based carrier continues to operate under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and responded to shut-down rumors last week by securing $100 million in short-term debtor-in-possession financing.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.