Why Was Terminal 2 at the Airport Torn Down?

Why was Terminal 2 at the airport torn down? What terminal do charter flights and international flights now use?

We get this question all the time. Apparently, airline passengers have a hard time reconciling the fact that Reid International has a Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, but not a Terminal 2.

Terminals 1 and 2 serviced McCarran International between 1963 and 2012, when Terminal 3 was completed. Terminal 3 was built from scratch at a cost of $2.4 billion over a period of more than 10 years. It remains one of the largest public-works projects in Nevada history.

As soon as the sleek new four-concourse 94-gate Terminal 3 opened, Terminal 2, which had been home to international and charter arrivals and departures, was rendered obsolete, so it was shut down. Actually, it was considered obsolete long before Terminal 3 opened, too dilapidated to be upgraded for further use as a concourse. And it was finally demolished in 2016.

Charter and private flights used to fly into Terminal 2, but when that shut down, they got distributed to various private terminals located along the western side of the airport, far from the main passenger terminals. These are expanding and getting busier as private-airline jets continue their slow but inexorable takeover of corporate jets owned by the casinos to fly in their high rollers.

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Comments

David Jan-26-2023

Similar to Phoenix

Which only has a terminal 3 & 4.

And the price paid for this terminal is proof that the entire construction industry is corrupt. The land cost was essentially $0 and yet it cost so much?

gaattc2001 Jan-26-2023

Living in Dallas in the late '90's/early 2000's...

we took a few charter flights into Terminal 2. I don't remember the name of the service, but it was a pretty bare-bones operation. They advertised in the Dallas papers and on TV. 
They would let us off the plane with the admonition, "Be back here at such-and-such-a-time," and then you were on your own. The price was right, though. I think they had some optional add-on hotel deals, but the main draw was the air fare.
IIRC they used big planes--DC-10's or L-1011's, always full--and the terminal was practically deserted except for us. Another Las Vegas memory, gone forever.
Since then, perhaps fortunately, I haven't had to deal with McCarran/Reid much, or even at all.
Cheers.

Gregory Jan-26-2023

gaattc2001

My bet is you were hooked in with either TGT (Trans Global Tours) or MLT (Mainline Travel).  They were big charter operators from the 70s-90s.  Both were based in Minneapolis, but TGT also had a presence in Dallas.  A lot of their flights were run by ATA and Sun Country.  They used to have a deal where they would send your luggage straight to your room and all you had to to was get on a bus that would take you to your hotel.  You just picked up your room key at the front desk and you were all set.  On departure day, you had to have your luggage waiting by your room door ready to go something like 3 hours before departure.  Terminal 2 was just one giant room with a few parking stalls for the planes.  If I remember right, you walked outside and boarded the aircraft via stairs.  The proliferation of casinos in just about every state killed off the charter business.

Question of the Day - 26 January 2023

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