Since Tuesday, December 14 2021, people travelling to Las Vegas may well notice that, while the airport is still carrying the FAA code of LAS, it is now known as Harry Reid International Airport, rather than McCarran International Airport, which was the previous name of the city’s only international airport.
The Clark County Board of Commissioners voted in February 2021 in favor of renaming McCarran after Harry Reid, the Democrat who served Nevada in the US Senate for decades, including a stint as majority leader during the Obama administration from 2007 to 2015.
The airport was previously named for a different US senator. The late Pat McCarran served in Congress from 1933 to 1954.
Las Vegas continues to deal with the difficult economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Passenger traffic at the airport was hit hard. Some 22.2 million travelers passed through LAS gates in 2020, a fall of 56.9% compared with 2019, according to the Clark County Department of Aviation.
Residents and business owners in the city will surely be hoping the newly renamed LAS airport welcomes many more passengers in 2022.
