LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Airport numbers are reflecting the summer slowdown trend across the Las Vegas valley as well as concerns about several national policies. However, Las Vegas airport officials are confident the travel and tourism industries can weather the slight downturn.
On Tuesday, Clark County Department of Aviation officials presented their latest numbers to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority's Board of Directors. According to Joel Van Over, the LVCVA's aviation consultant, numbers were strong until April.
"When I was here in January, I stood here and we talked about what to expect in 2025. The airlines were making a lot of statements saying it's going to be the biggest year in the United States. By April, airlines said demand is falling off a cliff. They all had a common theme of reacting to the drying up by reducing capacity system-wide to the back half of the year," Van Over told the board. "All of those capacity cuts that are happening in the back half of the year are here to stay. That will allow fares to be stable."
That slowdown is due to some national policy changes, but it's also due to ongoing issues at Spirit Airlines.
"Spirit has an issue with their engines, and a large amount of their fleet is on the ground right now. They have an issue with their engines where there are cracks in the engines. They have to pull that engine off the plane, fix the cracks, put it back on the plane. The whole process takes about 300 days," Van Over said. "They have 50 planes sitting on the ground right now, which impacts us, as the second-largest station for Spirit."
WATCH: Las Vegas airport officials confident despite slight drop in passenger numbers
In March, Spirit Airlines emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy after restructuring its debt obligations, establishing new financing arrangements, and issuing new equity securities. In a quarterly report released on Tuesday, company officials stated they are still facing financial challenges.
"The Company has continued to be affected by adverse market conditions, including elevated domestic capacity and continued weak demand for domestic leisure travel in the second quarter of 2025, resulting in a challenging pricing environment," the report reads in part. "As a result, the Company continues to experience challenges and uncertainties in its business operations and expects these trends to continue for at least the remainder of 2025."
Company officials also wrote that "management has concluded there is substantial doubt" that the company will be able to continue operations past next year.
While some have interpreted that to mean Spirit Airlines is about to be out of business, company officials are disputing that. I obtained a copy of a letter that was sent to Spirit employees on Tuesday, which you can read below:
"Spirit Team,
Yesterday, we filed our 10-Q, outlining our second quarter 2025 financial results. This filing generated media coverage and, naturally, a lot of questions.
Let me start by providing some context around what’s included in the report. The report uses the phrase “substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.” This is a phrase required by our outside auditors to convey that there is risk if we do not make changes. But, we are.
Since my arrival at the airline, the Senior Leadership Team and I have developed a plan that leans into Spirit’s strengths, while moving away from the elements of the business that no longer work. That includes strategically growing our network in stronger markets with more opportunities and making some difficult decisions like re-evaluating unprofitable routes. It also includes improvements to our revenue management system and the way we sell our products. By doing so, the team and I are confident that we can build a Spirit that will continue to provide consumers the unmatched value that they have come to expect for many years to come.
Spirit is a critical part of the U.S. aviation industry. We have saved consumers hundreds of millions of dollars, whether they fly with us or not. We remain hard at work on many initiatives to protect our unique franchise, our valued Team Members, our business partners and our Guests who place their trust in us every day.
We appreciate your commitment and professionalism during this challenging phase and, with your help, we will transform and protect this critical business.
Every safe flight, every on-time departure, and every Guest taken care of builds our credibility and stability.
I’ll have more to share about our commercial changes in my next fireside chat in the coming weeks.
-Dave"
Regardless of what happens with Spirit Airlines, Van Over told the board that airport officials have diversified the amount and type of carriers that service Harry Reid International Airport, and they'll be OK.
According to Van Over, Las Vegas is in the top five when it comes to fastest-growing airports. (Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, and Orlando round out that list.)
The annual arriving capacity set a new record of 25.5 million seats for the last fiscal year. In addition to that, more planes are flying into Las Vegas.
"It's just an empty plane until someone fills it up. We've had 43% passenger growth in that same time, which means seats are being filled," he said. "In addition to that, we're the fifth-largest origin-destination airport in the country. We don't want to be a hub. We want them to get off the plane and come to town. We don't want them to just pass through."
To meet growing demand, airport officials are also moving forward with plans for a supplemental airport near Ivanpah and are looking at improvements to Henderson Executive Airport and North Las Vegas Airport.