The city of Las Vegas in the US is planning to increase the number of international gates at McCarran International Airport in anticipation of rise in foreign travel in the near future.
McCarran International Airport director Rosemary Vassiliadis was quoted by The Associated Press as saying that the airport hopes to start work to alter part of an existing link between D concourse and one of its two terminals into seven additional international gates later this year.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
One of the new gates will be able to accommodate a wide-body double-decker A-380 aircraft, which is said to be a first at the airport.
Referring to airlines flying the passenger planes, Vassiliadis said: "We don’t want them to think they can’t come here."
The $51m project is slated to be complete by late 2016 or in early 2017.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) has been focusing on boosting foreign travels, and hopes to introduce expensive direct flights to certain destinations, especially Asia.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataAccording to the publication, foreigners represented 19% of the more than 40 million people who visited Las Vegas in 2014.
LVCVA president and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter said that the objective to increase international travel would most likely include a specific programme to boost Chinese travel.
Currently, as there are no direct flights to Las Vegas from China and Japan.
Around 43 million passengers visited McCarran International Airport in 2014, making it the ninth busiest airport in the US. The number is still lesser than a 47.7 million passenger high in 2007.
Image: Las Vegas’s McCarran airport will increase the number of international gates. Photo: courtesy of Craig Butz.
