Harry Reid International Airport
Facts on LAS
Las Vegas's airport has had three names: it opened in 1943 as 'Alamo Field' (named by a flight instructor after his ancestor Davy Crockett), became 'McCarran Field' in 1948 to honor Nevada Senator Pat McCarran, and was renamed Harry Reid International Airport in December 2021 after the Clark County Commission cited McCarran's legacy of anti-Semitism and racism.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport is named for Harry Reid, who grew up poor in the mining town of Searchlight, Nevada; he went on to become Nevada's longest-serving U.S. senator (1987-2017) and Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015, helping pass the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd-Frank financial reforms.
Source: Wikipedia
The Clark County Commission renamed McCarran International as Harry Reid International on December 14, 2021, honoring the former Senate Majority Leader; Reid died of cancer just two weeks later, on December 28, 2021.
Source: Wikipedia
Under Nevada gaming law, LAS has slot machines inside its passenger terminals -- along with Reno's airport, it is one of only two airports in the United States where you can gamble before your flight.
Source: Wikipedia
LAS's air traffic control tower stands 352 feet tall and was the second-tallest control tower in the country when it was completed in 2016.
Source: Wikipedia
Flight instructor George Crockett built the airport's predecessor, Alamo Field, in 1942 on the site the airport now occupies, naming it for his ancestor Davy Crockett, who died defending the Alamo; it opened in January 1943 with three gravel runways and a flight school.
Source: Wikipedia
From 1970 through the end of 2025, more than 1.59 billion passengers passed through the airport — an average of over 28 million a year — and 2024 alone set a record with 58.4 million travelers.
Source: Wikipedia
In the late 1980s, America West Airlines built a niche overnight hub at the airport, running flights only between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. to exploit Las Vegas's 24-hour tourism economy; Southwest Airlines had overtaken it as the airport's busiest carrier by the late 1990s.
Source: Wikipedia