Harry Reid International Airport ranked third in passenger satisfaction in the “mega” category of airports in the recently released J.D. Power 2023 North America Airport Satisfaction Study.
Airports nationwide are maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction, despite an ongoing influx of passengers, the survey found. Las Vegas in the study trailed Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, which took first.
“They’ve done a great job reopening food and beverage and retail outlets, and providing more hours,” said Mike Taylor, managing director of travel, hospitality and retail at J.D. Power. “And still, some airports are … having a problem, but they’re much better than they were a year ago.”
Thayne Klingler, director of airport affairs at Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air, said he believes air travel has never been stronger, which presents some challenges to airport infrastructure, staffing and so on.
Airports around the country are pushing projects to expand and keep up with increased demand by adding more gates, widening security checkpoints, expanding baggage systems, adding parking for aircrafts and more, he said.
“Airports like Vegas are doing a phenomenal job of doing that,” Klinger said. “It’s impressive how many people they put through that facility and yet it’s still convenient and easy to use, in my opinion, for a large airport.”
Harry Reid, which Taylor called a “high-performing” airport with great structure, benefits a lot from its proximity to the Las Vegas Strip, he said.
Customers who feel they get to the airport more quickly tend to enjoy their experience in cities more. The check-in and security process seems to be easier, they can spend more time browsing food, beverage and retail, and so on.
And when it comes to entertainment and activity options in the terminal, Las Vegas has always had “far and away” the highest score, Taylor said.
“Las Vegas has never ever lost the No. 1 spot for things to do in the terminal—basically because of gambling,” he said.
Rosemary Vassiliadis, director of aviation in Clark County, said the goal is for people traveling through Las Vegas to have a smooth experience. She pointed to a satisfactory experience at arrivals and departures, the security checkpoint and baggage claim as essential to making this happen.
Her department meets with the airlines and the Transportation Security Administration on a weekly basis and works to guarantee that ticket counters and security checkpoints are always staffed, especially during peak hours in the mornings, to meet high demand.
“A lot of people were coming here after the pandemic—this was either their first travel, or the first time coming to Vegas,” she said. “So, we knew we were going to be it—we’re that first impression, and we’re that last impression. And we want it to be good.”
Flights to Las Vegas have bounced back in record numbers since COVID-19, and the city has been a “beneficiary” of the pent-up demand for travel that came because of the pandemic, Vassiliadis said. In July, 4.95 million people arrived and departed from the airport—the third-highest mark in history.
She attributed the rate at which Las Vegas recovered its domestic travel numbers to all it has to offer—not just on the Strip, but also in entertainment and sports, outdoor activities and more.
“After we reopened and after cities started to reopen, Vegas was the perfect place I think for people just to get out and get their minds off of things, since Vegas has a little bit of everything now—it’s not just gaming,” she said, noting that domestic travel in and out of Las Vegas has grown post-pandemic.
Increased demand for travel in any city, however—especially coupled with an ongoing pilot shortage—can mean more people in the terminal and lower customer satisfaction, Taylor said.
The most important factor in the study is how people interact with the terminal building—how new it is, comfortability, good and accessible Wi-Fi and easily navigable signs and directions, he said. The biggest indicator of how an airport is going to rank is how consumers feel about the bathrooms, he noted.
As well-managed as Harry Reid has proven to be, being slammed with people means longer lines at TSA and also at food and beverage outlets, less clean bathrooms, and fewer available seats at the gate.
Nevertheless, he emphasized, too many people in a terminal is a better problem to have than too few.
“The satisfaction goes down when there’s more people in the terminal,” he said. “And I tell every airport—that’s the problem you want to have. You don’t want to have the other problem, where there’s no one in your terminal. That one’s harder to solve.”
High demand is ultimately “wonderful news” at Harry Reid, where Vassiliadis said increased air travel has led to the need for a second commercial airport in Las Vegas. That supplemental airport is a long way off, she stressed, but on the way.
“For airports, this is a good time, believe it or not,” Taylor said. “Because, with the sustained increased demand—nobody thought it would come back this fast, nobody thought it would be this big—more airports are now more likely to entertain expansion plans and spending, and they have a little bit more cash to work with. So that’s a good thing.”
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This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.