Why was Las Vegas’ airport so busy Monday?
An atypical high-volume passenger day at Harry Reid International Airport Monday left travelers scrambling and some passengers missing their flights.
A representative of the Transportation Security Administration blamed clogged security lines on a high volume of late spring break traffic and passengers failing to arrive at the airport early enough to make their flights.
TSA spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said Sunday produced the third-highest volume of processed passengers in Reid’s history. The high volume continued Monday morning, but the flow was returning to normal by early afternoon.
Around 107,000 passengers had been the highest volume recorded by TSA at Reid with the days following Super Bowl 58 last year having the most departing travelers. On Monday, Dankers said the TSA was projecting volume to be in the mid-90,000s.
Dankers said there was one equipment failure in a TSA security line, but it was resolved quickly and didn’t contribute to the slowdown.
“We had equipment go down in one lane, but that got fixed pretty fast,” she said. “We reroute the passengers, redistribute them, load balance them.”
She said passengers frequently don’t give themselves enough time to reach their gates on time. Reid officials recommend arriving at the airport three hours in advance of flight time.
Reid officials said several weekend events may have contributed to the Monday-morning rush out of town. The largest may have been the LVL UP Expo, a blend of gaming competitions, with presentations by voice actors, streamers and performers at the Las Vegas Convention Center South Hall, expected to draw 120,000 people over three days.
Over the weekend, Las Vegas also hosted three days of motor sports events with the Holley LS Fest West, featuring competitions in autocross, drifting, drag racing, off-road, donuts and burnouts at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The Holo Holo Music Festival also was staged in downtown Las Vegas Friday and Saturday and legendary rock band AC/DC performed Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium.
The International Car Wash Association also had its annual convention at the Las Vegas Convention Center and was expected to attract more than 10,000 conventioneers over the weekend.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.