Richard N. Velotta | Las Vegas Review-Journal (TNS)
LAS VEGAS — Harry Reid International Airport had the most flight delays of any major U.S. airport in the 2023 fiscal year, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a recent report.
The FAA, which uses data collected from air traffic controllers nationwide, said there were 29,763 flight delays at Reid that fiscal year — more than 9,500 more delays that the second-highest airport, New York’s LaGuardia International Airport. The Reid total also is more than twice the number recorded in the 2022 fiscal year and more than five times greater than the number averaged between fiscal years 2017-19.
A Reid representative said that many factors come into play for the numerous flight delays at Las Vegas’ airport, including a major runway renovation.
“It includes weather conditions, not just in Southern Nevada but across the nation that can create a domino effect with flights arriving and departing at LAS,” said Monika Bertaki, a spokeswoman for the Clark County Department of Aviation.
“Commercially, we’ve had a post-pandemic influx in air traffic at LAS, all while the number of aircraft that can take off and land with a particular configuration remains the same,” she said. “To add to that, the influx of general aviation traffic to the region during peak days and times competes for the number of departures per hour. Lastly, in the spring and summer of 2023, we completed runway improvements to reconfigure four taxiways and shift two runways. During the construction on the runways, portions were closed that reduced the number of departures and arrivals at a given hour.”
Among 30 core airports nationwide, Reid International had the worst performance involving delays of 15 minutes or more. The four worst airports behind Reid were LaGuardia (20,019 delays in fiscal 2023), Newark, New Jersey’s Liberty International (13,729 delays), San Francisco International (12,303) and Denver International (9,570).
The least number of delays in fiscal 2023: Salt Lake City International with 231 delays.
The FAA reported a total 153,312 delays among the 30 core airports.
While delays at Reid International have soared over the past year, the number of delays nationwide have declined by 50.6% from a year ago, the FAA said.
On-time performance has improved even as the number of flight operations nationwide has increased, the FAA said.
The report said the number of operations rose by 3.8% to 12.2 million. An arrival and a departure each count as an operation.
Ten U.S. airports, including Reid, have seen the number of operations grow beyond pre-pandemic 2017-19 levels. Airports that have exceeded pre-pandemic levels include Dallas-Fort Worth, Denver, Reid, New York’s John F. Kennedy, Phoenix Sky Harbor, Orlando, Honolulu, Washington’s Ronald Reagan National, and Tampa.
Reid is fifth among airport operations with 603,015 trailing Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta (762,526 operations), Chicago’s O’Hare International (716,920), Dallas-Fort Worth (675,807) and Denver (647,440).
The FAA has five categories showing the types of delays at the nation’s airports. The agency reported in fiscal 2023 that weather caused 54.5% of delays, traffic volume 21.5%, equipment 6.2%, runway issues 17.8%, and “other” 0.1%.
Reid also experienced the ninth highest number of cancellations at 3,515 in fiscal year 2023. The top airport for cancellations was Denver (6,837) followed by LaGuardia (6,672), Newark (6,440), Dallas-Fort Worth (6,043), Chicago O’Hare (5,669), Atlanta (4,138), New York JFK (4,125), Orlando (3,932) then Reid. The airport with the least number of cancellations: Honolulu (865).
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