LAS VEGAS — Harry Reid International Airport had the most flight delays of any major U.S. airport in the 2023 fiscal year, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a recent report.
The FAA, which uses data collected from air traffic controllers nationwide, said there were 29,763 flight delays at Reid that fiscal year — more than 9,500 more delays that the second-highest airport, New York’s LaGuardia International Airport. The Reid total also is more than twice the number recorded in the 2022 fiscal year and more than five times greater than the number averaged between fiscal years 2017-19. A Reid representative said that many factors come into play for the numerous flight delays at Las Vegas’ airport, including a major runway renovation.
“It includes weather conditions, not just in Southern Nevada but across the nation that can create a domino effect with flights arriving and departing at LAS,” said Monika Bertaki, a spokeswoman for the Clark County Department of Aviation. “Commercially, we’ve had a post-pandemic influx in air traffic at LAS, all while the number of aircraft that can take off and land with a particular configuration remains the same,” she said. “To add to that, the influx of general aviation traffic to the region during peak days and times competes for the number of departures per hour.
Lastly, in the spring and summer of 2023, we completed runway improvements to reconfigure four taxiways and shift two runways. During the construction o.