Vegas airport passenger traffic down again in 2009

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Airport officials say 40.5 million passengers used McCarran International Airport in 2009, down 8.2 percent compared with 2008.

Figures released Thursday by the Clark County Department of Aviation showed a second consecutive year-to-year decrease in passenger traffic, after a 7.7 percent drop in 2008.

The Las Vegas airport logged steady annual growth in passenger traffic leading to an all-time high of 47.7 million passengers in 2007.

The decrease in 2009 from more than 44 million in 2008 tied 1981 for the largest single-year percentage drop in passenger traffic at the Las Vegas airport.

McCarran remains the nation's seventh-busiest North America airport.

Airport officials blame the decrease in passenger traffic to the recession and airline cutbacks.