The people I know who work in the casino industry in Las Vegas are really nervous about the impact of US Airways significantly cutting back on flights to and from Las Vegas. With 130,000 hotel rooms to fill and casino, restaurant and show revenue already falling, reduced airline service and rapidly rising fares will destroy the town.

I do not believe demand is really down to Las Vegas but the fares will be set artifically high if the airlines can cut the number of available seats. I would love to visit Vegas but not at $700 RT.

Does the airline industry (including Las Vegas's most popular Airline- US Airways), owe anything to Las Vegas or other communities who depend on tourism and affordable airfares?

It's not just US. As most of the majors announce their cuts, Vegas is at the top of the list. But so is Hawaii and other lesiure destinations. Flight cancellations are not what the Vegas tourism industry should be worried about. Those that want to find a way will be able to. It's the lack of demand caused by economic uncertainty that will affect the industry. But you don't build a casino without a long term plan that takes the past into consideration. So the demand shortage should not be a surprise to anyone in the industry.

I'm not sure an airline owes anything to any city (outside of any contractual obligations there might be) ... Las Vegas, Orlando, San Diego, Hawaii, etc have gone through this before and will again.

They are all generally pretty good at giving out incentives to keep at least a base level of people coming in to keep the city afloat until things pick up again. Also with the US dollar what it is, I would assume they are making an effort in non-US markets to bring people in.

It's hard to detect sarcasm in a written forum, so I assume you are serious. I really don't think that USAirways reducing flights will have more than a tiny ripple effect in Las Vegas. The downturn in the economy might have a major effect, but the marginal impact of US's action is tiny, IMHO.

Of course not, especially Las Vegas, of all places!!! That town had become so obviously overbuilt in recent years that a contraction was needed anyway.

Here is a pretty neat interactive map that was on USA Today's website that shows airline cutbacks for various states. I don't really know what percent of Las Vegas traffic is US Airways, but it looks like there is a lot of capacity.

On a side note, it's pretty interesting to see how all of the airports stack up. I was suprised to see that DCA has more seats than IAD.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/...cutbacks_n.htm

Note that it says for domestic travel only...

I think that once US Airways and others really start raising the airfares and cut back flights and the number of people who come to Las Vegas continues to drop and the layoffs and bankruptcies start to really hit the news, people will look at this differently.

Our real estate industry in Las Vegas is already dying, and now people are starting to get concerned that the perfect storm may hit when they reduce airline service to the number one tourist dependent community.

Don't the Bankers and Bond Holders who are financing billions in New Las Vegas Hotel and Casino Construction see the upcoming crisis happening?

Most visitors to Las Vegas who come by air arrive on US Airways and most visitors to Las Vegas come via air. It looks like a crisis in our fair city!

Part of Vegas having thrived in the past few years I think has a lot to do with artificially low airfare. Airfare can't remain at those levels and will have to rise accordingly - seats or no seats. That will have a material impact.

Here's a great story on the subject:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...D&siteid=yhoof

More than US, you've got to factor in the general economic downturn and the poor state of the economy in Las Vegas, which is one of the hardest hit places by the housing bubble. I think one thing that's going to help Vegas though is they're going to keep seeing tons of European travelers (and other international visitors) since it is so cheap to travel there.

Actually, Southwest has twice the number of daily flights that US has, so more people would come on Southwest. Now if THEY start to cut back, there could be a serious shortage of seats and artificially high prices.

Really, much of US cuts have been the night bank - red eyes fit the Vegas lifestyle but people don't want to pay a lot for them. In this economic environment the cost to fly the red-eye greatly out-paces people's willingness to pay for it.

Part of the beauty of the capitalist system, though, is that demand will eventually find an equilibrium. Las Vegas has benefited from cheap airfares and huge capacity growth, and now the opposite is happening. Eventually, capacity will rightsize itself. With supply down, airfares will go up. As airfares begin to rise again, supply will come back into the market to meet the demand. Don't worry, we'll get there. It'll just sting some in the meantime.

Mike

If people really need to take a redeye East out of LAS, just take a hop to LAX, SAN, PHX, SFO, for example and take their redeyes east. If US couldn't give you a fare on the hop, I'm sure WN would be happy to get you to the redeye.

I used to do these games when I wanted to use an award ticket, yet do LAS and SFO/SJC on the same trip. So I'd fly into LAS, do my business there (no, not gamble, convention/computer show) then take a hop on WN or UA to the bay area (SJC or SFO), spend time in the bay area, then come back to east coast from there.

What a concept, I suppose you'll want the federal government to create an entity to regulate their ticket prices like public utilities, you could call it something snazzy like the Civil Aeronautics Board. Sounds like a huge step forward!

Actually, Bob Crandall is calling for partial re-regulation of the airline industry.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...egulation.html