Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/109603
The 22nd busiest airport in the world, McCarran saw nearly 40 million passengers in 2010. Well into the ���60s, casinos could send pretty girls in barely-there costumes to greet VIPs on the tarmac. PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVE MARCUS/LAS VEGAS SUN I n 1947, US commercial airlines transported 10 million travelers. Just 11 years later, that figure was 55 million. And even larger planes were about to be unveiled, with 747s and DC-10s that would carry as many as 300 people on every flight. ���Air travel was expanding [at an alarming rate],��� read a Las Vegas Sun editorial, ���and the public [increasingly] came to depend on commercial aviation.��� A modest $150,000 program in the early ���50s to pave three runways, provide night lighting, and build a control tower and weather station was simply not enough. McCarran remained too small to meet the commercial demands of the city it served. Annual passenger volume at the airport soared to more than 700,000 in 1957, the vast majority drawn by the flurry of resort construction. That year a study undertaken by the Clark County Commission found that a brand-new terminal made more economic sense than simply expanding the current facilities. It was time for Clark County to make an investment in its future. Federal grants would pick up a portion of the new airport���s price tag, but the county would have to float a $5 million bond to pay for the remainder. The trick would be getting Clark County voters to approve the bond. Problem was, they���d just approved a $6 million bond for local schools, and a vocal percentage of them believed that McCarran was sufficient to meet the community���s needs without expansion. What they didn���t yet know: Casinos were ready for the Wild West to start welcoming a more affluent caliber of gambler. Al Cahlan, then editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, wrote: ���The present facilities are completely THE 10-MINUTE AIRPORT COMMUTE PICK A BIG FIGHT WEEKEND, any big fight weekend in Las Vegas, and you will find a fleet of private luxury jets, including G-IVs and G-Vs, lined up at the Signature Air and Atlantic Aviation terminals at McCarran Airport. Our town���s private experience isn���t just about $600 bottles of Dom P��rignon, although those are certainly available. Here bigwigs of all genres can fly in for just one A-list event and then sleep in their own beds that night in LA or San Francisco. We are the only big city in the country with an airport so close to the action. ���Quickly in, quickly out, right onto the plane,��� says Brig Lawson, director of business partnerships for the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. ���It���s the red carpet.��� The ease of travel is particularly important as a competitive tool for bringing in international casino whales, who may drop as much as $250,000 a hand in the salons priv��s of the swankiest Strip hotels���and thus score rides on casinos��� private jets. ���Las Vegas has that high-roller, celebrity crowd, and we also have the Spirit Airlines crowd,��� Lawson says. Although those lines can blur: Many LA celebs jump on one of Southwest���s dozen daily flights to and from LAX���and Virgin America recently announced it will be making three daily roundtrip flights starting April 22. Nursing a hangover? Southwest has a private waiting area for super-VIPs only. Just don���t ask us where it is. We���ll never tell. VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 104-109_V_Feat_FiftyandFab_Spring13.indd 107 107 2/11/13 1:01 PM