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McCarran
International Airport (IATA: LAS, ICAO: KLAS, FAA LID: LAS)
is the principal commercial airport serving Las Vegas and
surrounding Clark County, Nevada. The airport is located five
miles (8 km) south of the central business district of Las
Vegas, in the unincorporated town of Paradise. It covers an
area of 2,800 acres (1,133 ha) and has four runways. McCarran
is owned by Clark County and operated by the Clark County
Department of Aviation. It serves as a hub for US Airways
and Allegiant Air, and is the largest operation base of Southwest
Airlines.
In
2005, McCarran was one of the world's busiest airports, ranking
ninth for passenger traffic, with 44,280,190 passengers passing
through the terminal, and fifth for aircraft movements, with
605,046 takeoffs and landings. Currently, McCarran International
Airport is the sixth busiest airport in the United States
in terms of traffic, and the eleventh in the world with 46,194,882
passengers passing through the airport in 2006; a 4.3% change
from 2005.
 McCarran
(and the Clark County Department of Aviation) is also a completely
self-sufficient enterprise, requiring no money from the County's
general fund.
As
of March 2007, Southwest Airlines operated more flights out
of McCarran than at any other airport. Southwest also carries
the most passengers in and out of McCarran. Southwest currently
operates out of 27 gates, primarily in Concourse C, at McCarran.
The US Airways night-flight hub operation, established in
1986 by predecessor America West Airlines, makes the carrier
McCarran's second busiest airline, with the vast majority
of flights still operated by America West.
McCarran
Airport is somewhat unique in that it has more than 1,300
slot machines throughout the airport terminals. Reno/Tahoe
International Airport also has gaming machines both airside
and landside.
Maximum
capacity for the airport is estimated at 53 million passengers
and 625,000 aircraft movements. As McCarran is predicted to
reach this capacity around 2017, Ivanpah Airport is planned
as a relief airport.
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