Las Vegas airport handles record 52.7M passengers in 2022, surpassing pre-pandemic high

Las Vegas' Harry Reid International Airport announced Monday that it handled 52.7 million passengers to and from the gambling mecca in 2022, up more than 2% from the previous record set in pre-pandemic 2019.

Rosemary Vassiliadis, airport chief and Clark County Director of Aviation, said in a statement:  “We are no longer talking about an air travel recovery. The trajectory of Las Vegas air travel throughout 2022 was nothing short of remarkable.”

Several airport rankings put the Las Vegas airport, formerly known as McCarran International, among the top 10 busiest for passenger traffic in the U.S. It handled 51.5 million passengers in pre-pandemic 2019. And as travel ramped up following the pandemic, it reported serving 32.6 million passengers in 2021, a figure that has now been eclipsed by 2022's new record.

In a statement, the airport pointed to a busy year of Las Vegas-area sports and entertainment events, and an expansion of international travel including flights from South Korea, German and Switzerland.

The data from Harry Reid International Airport followed recently released reports showing that Nevada casinos’ set calendar-year records for winnings and Las Vegas-area visitor tallies nearly reached levels seen before the 2020 pandemic shutdowns.

With the inclusion of December’s performance, Nevada finished off the year with more than $14.8 billion in gaming revenue, blowing past 2021’s $13.4 billion. Results for the year were fueled by a record performance of the Strip in December.

As reported by the Gaming Control Board last month, the Strip accounted for more than $8.2 billion of the state’s total in the year, a 17.1% increase compared to its 2021 performance.