Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Las Vegas airport could become Harry Reid International in September

Travel During The Pandemic

Steve Marcus

A view of a welcome sign at McCarran International Airport Thursday, July 2, 2020.

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid responds to a question during an interview at his office in the Bellagio Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019.

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid responds to a question during an interview at his office in the Bellagio Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019.

McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas could become Harry Reid International as soon as September, a Clark County official said today.

The county could conduct a ceremony and put up a new sign this fall to mark the renaming of the airport for the former longtime U.S. senator from Nevada, said Commissioner Tick Segerblom, a leading advocate for the renaming.

The County Commission unanimously voted in February to rename the county-owned and operated airport for Democrat Reid, a Searchlight native who spent more than 30 years in Washington, mostly as a senator but also as a U.S. representative. He was Senate majority leader from 2007 to 2015.

The renaming removes the name of Democratic U.S. Sen. Pat McCarran, an aviation proponent but also a known racist and anti-Semite who represented Nevada in the Senate from 1933 to 1954.

The airport’s three-letter code, LAS, a key identifier for the Federal Aviation Administration, will remain the same. The FAA doesn’t approve or sign off on airport names.

"(The) FAA has to complete some administrative tasks before we officially recognize any name change," agency spokesman Ian Gregor said Wednesday. "We have now finished updating aeronautical charts, aeronautical publications and pilot notices to provide information that’s essential to safe and efficient aircraft operations at the airport."