In September, 3.55 million travelers passed through the airport, an 8.7 percent increase over the same month last year and the highest jump since May 2005, according to airport records. McCarran's passenger counts, a key factor in prosperity on the Strip, began to fall sharply four years ago and did not rebound consistently until this year.

 

Randall Fine, managing director of the casino consulting company Fine Point Group, termed the recent McCarran numbers as a partial recovery. "There's no question we are moving in the right direction, but the year-to-date pace doesn't get us anywhere near the peak," Fine said.  

Passenger totals for the first nine months of this year were up 4.5 percent compared with 2010. At that pace, the annual total will hit 41.5 million, well short of the record 46.2 million in 2007. "Even reaching the peak is not good enough; we have to get past the peak," Fine said, noting Las Vegas resorts added 16,500 new guest rooms since then.