No, Terminal 3 is not a "stopgap measure" but a large and expensive ($2.4 billion) public-works program that is meant to serve McCarran for the long-term future. To that extent, it includes an eight-story parking garage and 83,000 square feet of retail and dining space. It is scheduled to open for business on June 27, 2012.
In fact, the erection of Terminal 3 – along with recession-driven decreases in air travel – rendered the proposed, $7 billion Ivanapah airport obsolete long before it could be built. The project has been suspended indefinitely, effective June 2010. Clark County Deputy Aviation Director Rosemary Vassiliadis told the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Alan Choate, "We don't lose anything. We can restart it at any time." Next Generation Air Transportation System, satellite technology that directs flight traffic, is creating routing efficiencies that would enable McCarran to handle an additional 2 million passengers by the end of this year, one of several factors that rendered a second airport superfluous.
By postponing further preparatory work, Clark County saved $15 million that was budgeted for such things as environmental-impact studies. If restarted, the airport couldn’t be completed before 2025. In the meantime, MGM Resorts International has no choice but to sit on 166 acres of nearby desert, some of which formerly held the Nevada Landing casino. MGM had planned to build a new casino, condominiums, single-family residences, and commercial real estate on the site, hoping to take advantage of airport development. However, worries about the economy (and the replacement of CEO J. Terrence Lanni with James Murren) brought plans screeching to a halt in October 2007.
