Harry Reid Intl (KLAS)

Harry Reid International sits on the floor of the Las Vegas Valley with four runways in two parallel pairs at right angles to each other. The pairs intersect: the south ends of both north-south runways run across 8L/26R, which at fourteen thousand eight hundred and thirty-five feet is one of the longest civil runways in North America.

That intersection is the whole job. In the configuration Las Vegas uses most of the year you land 19R and 26L and depart 19L and 26R, so every arrival to 19R has to be fitted around the departures rolling across its rollout; the alternate configuration works the 1s and has no physical intersection at all, and the difference in rhythm is immediate. Southwest dominates, with the big three close behind and a rare, welcome widebody on the international runs. There is no arrival gate due north, because Nellis Air Force Base is there and the published arrivals go around it. The map is dry and honest to the Mojave: Lake Mead to the east, Lake Mohave to the south, and nothing else.

This is the Heavy tier. One warning that belongs on the box: Las Vegas sits in a bowl ringed by mountains, and VectorHeavy models no terrain, no minimum vectoring altitudes and no low-altitude alerting at any field. The Spring Mountains are not on this scope. Do not fly this field as terrain practice.

Runway layout