Miller ready for mission to lure tourists to Vegas

Gov. Bob Miller takes flight Saturday on his third international tourism development mission.

The five-city, four-nation trip to Europe will be the most ambitious of the three intercontinental journeys by the governor.

Miller will lead a delegation of gaming and tourism executives to Munich, Frankfurt, London, Brussels and Amsterdam to meet with airline executives, travel brokers and government officials. The mission: to secure more nonstop air service to McCarran International Airport from overseas.

The biggest prize of the European tourism development mission would be a nonstop flight between London and Las Vegas.

Las Vegas was in the running for nonstop service last year when a slot came open in London, but British Airways' offer to provide daily service between London and Denver won out over a bid from Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airlines to fly twice a week to Las Vegas.

Coincidentally, a new round of bilateral talks between the United States and Great Britain begin early next week and some members of Miller's contingent will go directly to London to sit in and provide information at the hearings.

Those talks, the first between the two countries in more than a year, will include a number of issues that could affect Las Vegas. One item on the agenda is a proposed alliance between British Airways and American Airlines.

The European Union, an advisory board composed of government officials from several nations, has given its blessing to the British Airways-American Airlines union. But some officials are calling for those two carriers to relinquish some of their slots at London's Heathrow International Airport as a condition of approval.

That could open the door to other airlines and other cities lining up for direct service from London.

Harry Kassap, manager of air service development at McCarran, said the BA-AA alliance is one of many issues on the bilateral agenda.

William Mahaffey, manager of transportation for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, who will join Kassap at the talks, cautioned that airing the issue doesn't necessarily mean Las Vegas would get its nonstop flight.

But both of them will attend to provide information just in case.

"Our objective is to get a carrier that will provide nonstop service between London and Las Vegas," Kassap said. "It's been a long time since both sides have talked, so there will be a lot of updating about where things stand."

Las Vegas has a good rapport with Branson, who is the top executive for Virgin Records, which has a store in the Forum Shops at Caesars. Branson opposes the BA-AA alignment and has said he would investigate building his own Las Vegas resort if he can get a nonstop flight to the city on his airline.

Kassap said British aviation authorities will seek permission for their carriers to fly passengers within the United States.

Miller won't participate directly in the bilateral talks -- his itinerary begins in Germany on Monday where he and Tom Tait, executive director of the Nevada Commission on Tourism, will meet with executives of Condor and Lufthansa airlines.

Condor already offers nonstop flights between Bonn and Frankfurt and McCarran. Meetings with Condor and Lufthansa, parent company of Condor, are expected bolster the city's relationships. In addition, Lufthansa has a strategic alliance with United Airlines, the No. 3 carrier by passenger traffic at McCarran.

After meetings in Germany, Miller and his contingent will fly to London, then to Brussels and Amsterdam. In Brussels, the group will connect with executives of Sabena Airlines, parent company of the City Bird company that offers flights to McCarran. In Amsterdam, meetings are planned with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines officials. KLM has an alliance with Northwest Airlines, which initiated direct flights between Las Vegas and Tokyo last summer.

While Miller's focus will be on Europe next week, Asia will be at the forefront on Friday when Japan Airlines' first nonstop flight from Tokyo arrives in Las Vegas at about 7:35 a.m.

Flight 26 is leaving Tokyo on a 10-hour trip aboard a Boeing 747 on Friday afternoon. Japan's largest air carrier will operate two flights a week, Tuesdays and Fridays, adding a third in November. While the Tokyo-Las Vegas leg is direct, the return flight stops first in Los Angeles.

JAL's plan to initiate service to Las Vegas was announced in Miller's first overseas trip. In June, the governor went calling on airlines in Japan and Taiwan with the trip ultimately yielding the new JAL service and two charters by All Nippon Airlines in August.

In August, Miller traveled to four countries in Latin America in a bid to get nonstop flights from Mexico and South America. While no airlines have committed to a route, Miller convinced a group of Mexican tour wholesalers to visit Las Vegas, giving representatives of Southern Nevada's resort properties the opportunity to make a presentation.

When Miller goes to Europe, he will be joined by representatives of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Circus Circus Enterprises' Mandalay Bay and Hilton Hotels Corp.

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