Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Airline passengers have adjusted to security changes

Airlines that carry nearly two-thirds of the passengers in and out of McCarran International Airport haven't seen any unusual flight booking patterns around Sept. 11 as the second anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on American soil draws near.

Representatives of Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, the busiest commercial passenger carrier at McCarran, and No. 2 America West Airlines, Tempe, Ariz., said their customers aren't staying away from Sept. 11 flights.

"We haven't seen anything unusual about our Sept. 11 bookings, through Las Vegas or anywhere else in our system," said Christine Turneabe-Connelly, a spokeswoman for Southwest in Dallas.

Turneabe-Connelly said it was somewhat difficult to compare bookings for Sept. 11 of 2001, 2002 and 2003, since each of those dates are on different days of the week and airline bookings -- particularly for business travelers -- often are dictated by business decisions.

Southwest and other airlines serving Las Vegas normally begin ramping up for heavy weekend travel by Thursday afternoon. Turneabe-Connelly said compared with other Thursdays in September, Southwest's bookings for the 11th are running about normal for the airline, which has an average 168 flights a day between Las Vegas and 42 markets.

"Last year, some airlines reduced their schedules for Sept. 11, but we didn't," Turneabe-Connelly said. "Southwest always bucks the trend."

A spokeswoman for America West, which has an average 82 flights a day between Las Vegas and 34 markets, said bookings were running about average for Wednesday and Thursday, but above average for Friday.

Amber Heule, a spokeswoman, believes the above-average booking rate on Friday isn't a result of passengers avoiding flying Sept. 11, but more likely because of heavy weekend travel to Las Vegas, site of a super welterweight title fight Saturday between Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley.

"It's an average Wednesday (for Las Vegas bookings), a Thursday that is slightly better than last year and an extremely strong Friday," Heule said. "I don't think that shows people are purposely booking away from Sept. 11."

Most of the 29 airlines serving McCarran are looking at Thursday as just another business day.

Hilarie Grey, a spokeswoman for McCarran, said Thursdays normally are busy at the airport as weekend traffic begins flowing in. She said she hasn't heard of any special memorials or tributes in the airport for the anniversary.

Last year, United and American -- the airlines that had planes hijacked in the attacks -- had memorials for colleagues who lost their lives in New York, Washington and rural Pennsylvania.

Grey said while many things have changed at McCarran and airports nationwide since Sept. 11, 2001, passengers generally have adjusted to the change, arriving early for flights because of the potential of long lines.

And, while Las Vegas experienced a decrease in passenger counts in the 24 months since the terrorist attacks, a rebound to previous levels is nearly complete.

The Federal Aviation Administration control tower at McCarran reported 45,029 total operations in August 2001 and airport officials reported a total of 3.4 million passengers using McCarran that month -- the second-highest monthly total in the airport's history.

In September 2001 -- a month in which the nation's airports were closed for at least three days after the attacks -- the total number of operations dropped off to 35,482 and the number of passengers using the airport fell to 2.1 million people.

In July 2003, the most recent month for which the airport has statistics, the FAA reported 42,444 operations and the passenger count had risen to 3.2 million people.

Grey said that while operations and passenger counts have not rebounded completely at McCarran, "they're very close."

The number of flights offered by airlines serving Las Vegas also is close to a complete rebound. Carriers reported 431 daily departures from McCarran last month, compared with 440 in August 2001. Included in that 440 were 36 operated by National Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy and went out of business in November. Some of the slack has been picked up by Las Vegas newcomers JetBlue, Spirit, AirTran and Song and with an expansion by Southwest.

Las Vegas has fared better than most of the nation in its comeback. While McCarran's passenger traffic is off by 3.9 percent, nationwide, it's been down by between 10 percent and 40 percent nationwide since the attacks, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Air Transport Association.

John Heimlich, managing director of economics for the ATA, said summer statistics haven't been compiled, but the nation's airlines generally reported a good performance for the vacation season, the first indication of a rebound in months for an industry negatively affected by a shaky global economy, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome.

"The leisure side of things is firming up, which should bode fairly well for 2004," Heimlich said. "Having said that, we still have a ways to go, especially on the business side of things."

And, he said, most of the nation's airlines still aren't profitable because fares are low as companies attempt to win back customers, particularly on short-haul flights. Long lines brought upon by heightened security checks at airports have contributed to a "hassle factor" that has driven would-be plane passengers to their cars.

The phenomenon is apparent between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, where traffic on Interstate 15 has been up by double-digit percentages since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

While short-haul flights have been affected by the attacks, some of the longest hauls to Las Vegas -- international flights from Asia -- also have seen downturns.

Carol Anderson, a spokeswoman for Japan Airlines, said that while service between Tokyo and Las Vegas was suspended immediately after the terrorist attacks, loads between the two cities have finally returned to pre-9/11 levels.

JAL offers three nonstop flights a week to McCarran from Tokyo. After the Iraqi war broke out and the SARS virus resulted in travel downturns, the airline canceled flights on a case-by-case basis, based on anticipated loads.

"Things have been improving over June, July and August, and by the end of August, we were at the levels we had prior to the attacks," Anderson said.

While passengers at McCarran and other airport have seen dramatic changes in security precautions and have been directed to arrive early for flights, they've also seen changes on the price of tickets.

The ATA's Heimlich said all airline tickets now include a $2.50-per-flight Sept. 11 security fee. The Department of Transportation also allowed caps on public facilities charges to increase from $3 to $4.50 per flight with a maximum charge of $18 per round trip, up from $12. While those charges were authorized before the attacks, most airports -- in need of cash after the attacks -- put them into effect after Sept. 11.

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