Joe Buglewicz / The New York Times
Former Sen. Harry Reid is shown at his office in Las Vegas on July 2, 2019.
Monday, Feb. 15, 2021 | 2 a.m.
The push to rename Las Vegas’ airport in honor of former Sen. Harry Reid could get a huge boost Tuesday from the Clark County Commission.
Commissioners are scheduled to vote on a plan that would set the wheels in motion to change the name of McCarran International Airport to Harry Reid International Airport. Specifically, the vote would be to direct the county’s airport staff to file the name change with the Federal Aviation Administration for consideration.
Commissioner Tick Segerblom proposed the name change earlier this month, his latest push to have the county-owned airport named for the former Senate Democratic leader, Clark County native and living Democratic icon who represented Nevada in the U.S. Senate for 30 years.
The airport currently is named for former U.S. Sen. Pat McCarran, who represented Nevada in the Senate from 1933 until his death in 1954.
But Segerblom maintains having McCarran’s name on the airport doesn’t represent “the diversity of our community.” McCarran has been criticized in more recent years for a history of virulent racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia.
If the name change is ultimately approved, the airport’s three-letter code LAS, a key FAA identifier, would remain the same.
Approval of the name change would set the county on course to begin fundraising for an estimated $2 million rebranding effort.
Clark County owns the airport, giving the commission control over its name, but Segerblom said taxpayer money would not be used to rebrand the airport — everything from signage to stationery reflecting the Reid name.
McCarran is consistently a top 10 airport in the U.S. by passenger volume, serving 22.2 million passengers in pandemic-ravaged 2020 but a record 51.5 million passengers in 2019, according to airport reports.
Segerblom has been working to rename McCarran for Reid since he was a state senator in 2017, although a bill in the Nevada Legislature to do so died. That proposal also sought to remove McCarran’s statue from the U.S. Capitol.
Reid served in Washington from 1987-2017 and was the Senate majority leader from 2007 to 2015. Segerblom said he is the most significant, change-making Nevadan, and he wants to recognize the 81-year-old retired senator while he’s still alive.
“He really represents old Nevada and new Nevada,” Segerblom said. “He’s seen it all.”
The FAA said in a statement that although it doesn’t approve name changes, the agency must complete some administrative tasks — including processing the name change to ensure proper tracking of federal grand-agreement obligations and revising air traffic control maps — before officially recognizing any changes.
There has been a string of airport renamings nationwide in the last few years.
The Louisville (Kentucky) Regional Airport Authority Board renamed its airport for Louisville native son and boxing legend Muhammad Ali in 2019. County lawmakers in Rochester, New York, renamed the Greater Rochester International Airport last year for abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who lived in Rochester for 25 years and is buried in its historic cemetery.
The Hollywood Burbank Airport in California, formerly known as Bob Hope Airport for the late actor and comedian, was rebranded in 2017 to increase its geographic recognition. Campaigns to remove late actor John Wayne’s name from the Orange County, California, airport have been off and on, active as recently as last year, but that airport retains Wayne’s name despite contemporary dissatisfaction with racist and homophobic statements the actor made in a 1971 interview.
The Clark County Commission meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in commission chambers at 500 S. Grand Central Parkway in Las Vegas. The meeting will also be live-streamed at www.clarkcountynv.gov and www.youtube.com/ClarkCountyNV.
