The Clark County Board of Commissioners recently approved re-starting a stalled study to consider a new 2nd airport for the valley.
The potential new airport would be located along a stretch of land between Jean and Primm east of the 15.
With McCarran International Airport seeing a record 48.5 million travelers for 2017 and record monthly visitation numbers for several months in 2018, the county wanted to re-start a study for a new second that had previously been halted due to the recession.
The potential location was chosen because of air space limitations in other parts of valley. Aside from McCarran, we're surrounded by mountains and Nellis AFB to the north, so the area near Primm seems to make the most sense.
What's exciting is that we've got a blank canvas that has nothing on it," says Commission Jim Gibson.
But the plan is still far from becoming reality. The environmental impact study alone would take 2 years before any plans for what the airport would look like could go through.
But the idea has business owners in small-town Primm excited. At the Mad Greek Cafe, they rely on traffic driving up Interstate 15 and say having airline visitors also would be a game-changer. "It's kind of cool -- get lots of travelers lots of tourists lots of people coming back and forth," manager Jerry Dabour says.
The only potential challenge might be the location, around a 30 minute drive outside Las Vegas. But some travelers from California tell us they don't mind. "I'd rather do that than sit in 30 minutes of traffic at McCarran," says Jerry Johnson.
After the initial study is completed, the FAA and Bureau of Land Management would also have to agree.
