Originally Posted by
ijgordon
What I find perhaps most interesting is that nowhere on rkkwan's lists is Las Vegas. No cuts to LAS service, hmmm. McCarran arrivals have been running down 5-7% for the last few months and overall Vegas visitation down 1-3% (suggesting some of the air arrivals falloff is connecting pax on US or WN). The outlook is somewhat bleak, so interesting that CO hasn't cut back capacity. Perhaps their yields have been healthy...
I work for one of the large casinos and recently asked our marketing folks about this. Their response was that our fly in guests, particularly from the East Coast and Eurpoe is still quite strong. Presumably/hopefully Co is getting a lot of this traffic. Even though the $$ has picked up strength recently it is still a pretty deal for Europeans to come here (LAS).
The thing that is really impacting Vegas right now and the main reason for the 1-3% drop is our So Cal drive in for the weekend traffic. Not so many of those folks around.
I personally would not be surprised to see cuts in LAS flights in the coming months though. Convention trafic will drop off as companies and tradeshows take their business elsewhere. Big shows are usually booked a couple of years in advance so the impact of their departure will not be felt for a while.