Las Vegas Airport opens Terminal 3 expansion

The Clark County Department of Aviation today celebrated the opening of McCarran International Airport's new Terminal 3, a technologically advanced, 1.9 million-square-foot expansion that will significantly improve the travel experience for the more than 40 million passengers who annually fly through the nation's seventh-busiest airport.

"After years of planning and construction, it was amazing to see the first passengers and aircraft arrive here on Terminal 3's first day of operations"

"T3" is the first unit terminal to be constructed in the United States in the post-9/11 era. It includes 14 gates, seven of which can be used for international arrivals; an expansive ticketing lobby; space for two Transportation Security Administration checkpoints with up to 31 lanes; an eight-story garage with room for nearly 6,000 vehicles; more than a dozen stores and restaurants; and an automated tram system that enables Terminal 3 to handle the check-in, security and baggage claim needs of up to 26 gates at McCarran's nearby D Concourse. Coupled with the airport's existing infrastructure, Terminal 3 increases McCarran's annual capacity to approximately 53 million passengers; its historic peak was nearly 48 million passengers in 2007.

"After years of planning and construction, it was amazing to see the first passengers and aircraft arrive here on Terminal 3's first day of operations," said Clark County Director of Aviation Randall H. Walker. "It took a great deal of time and dedication to achieve this goal, and I would like to thank the members of the Clark County Board of Commissioners for their commitment to seeing this project to fruition. McCarran provides the first and last impressions of Las Vegas to tens of millions of travelers each year, and with T3 we're now well poised to serve those passengers' needs for years to come."