Clark County commissioners have given preliminary approval for a major Las Vegas airport expansion. Presented by the County Department of Aviation, the plan aims to increase the number of gates, enhance passenger access, and upgrade transportation facilities at Harry Reid International Airport, the seventh-busiest airport in North America. This initiative is designed to alleviate the growing congestion at the airport, which has experienced record passenger traffic in recent years.
In 2023, the Las Vegas airport welcomed 57.6 million passengers, up from 52.6 million in 2022. From May to July of this year, the airport averaged over 5 million passengers per month, peaking at 5.4 million in October 2023. Through August 2024, passenger traffic has risen nearly 3%. The expansion plan includes increasing the number of gates in Terminal 1 from 39 to 65, redesigning the A and B gates, and constructing new gates on the site of the demolished Terminal 2. Existing Terminal 1 concourses will be phased out, with new terminals designed in a pier-style layout to create more gates and larger passenger waiting areas.
The entire Las Vegas airport expansion is projected to take up to four years to complete once fully approved and funded. The last significant development at the airport, Terminal 3, was completed in 2012 after four years of construction at a cost of $2.4 billion. This new expansion will focus on maximizing the capacity of the landlocked airport, while plans for a new airport in Ivanpah Valley, the Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport, are still in the early stages, with completion not expected until 2037.