McCarran International Airport was a newsmaker last week, with some of the news good, some of it bad, but all of it important to the future well-being of Las Vegas' biggest industry.

First, some of the bad news.

Passenger volume at McCarran in July was down 8.6 percent to 3.9 million passengers. Although the percentage decrease was the largest this year and the worst since the post-9/11 era, it also should be noted that passenger totals in July 2007 were off the charts - 4.3 million passengers - so it was a little tough for the airport to maintain a near-record monthly count.

Unfortunately, the big decline dragged down the running total of visitors for the year. For seven months, volume is down 4 percent to 26.9 million passengers compared with 28 million for seven months in 2007.

Based on the July numbers, it doesn't look promising that passenger counts will increase this year, especially considering that capacity, which already was down 2.4 percent in July compared with July 2007, will fall even more after the summer vacation season ends.

Double-digit percentage capacity reductions already have been implemented by US Airways, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines and minor players Sun Country and Spirit. The number of seats offered by US Airways will fall even more in the last four months of the year when the airline halts most of its night flying to Las Vegas.

Even though US Airways' seat capacity was off 11.4 percent compared with July 2007, the number of Las Vegas passengers declined 17.3 percent to 701,946 people for the month. For the year, US Airways passenger counts have fallen 21.2 percent to 4.6 million passengers.

Other airlines, including vaunted No. 1 Las Vegas carrier Southwest Airlines, also had dramatic declines in July. Delta was off 12.7 percent to 195,917 passengers. United fell 8.9 percent to 249,749 passengers. And Southwest was off 5.6 percent to 1.4 million passengers for the month.

Of the top five carriers at the airport, only American Airlines, which boosted the number of seats flying into the market by 8.7 percent from June to July, saw its passenger counts climb 3.6 percent to 184,714 passengers.

Don't forget, also, that fewer airlines are operating at McCarran than a year ago. Gone are American Trans Air, Aloha and MaxJet, all which have quit flying, and Germany-based LTU, which stopped flying its minimal Las Vegas schedule. Only Virgin America has filled the void as a new carrier that wasn't around a year ago.

The one bright spot in the McCarran passenger statistics are the international numbers. Although July was flat from the year-ago figures, the seven-month total for 2008 is 7.4 percent ahead of 2007 to 1.4 million passengers.

Credit Canada's Westjet, Mexico's Aviacsa and Philippine Airlines for double-digit percentage increases in passenger counts. Virgin Atlantic and Britain's bmi are holding their own, but Korean Air passenger counts are off 7.1 percent from last year.

For the good news, Clark County Aviation Director Randy Walker got back to the Clark County Commission with his assessment of which airport capital improvements could be delayed or canceled.

You may recall that Walker had received a letter from a committee of airline users asking that the county put off some airport improvements since every airline is in a cost-saving mode.

It was ironic that the letter came from a representative of Southwest Airlines, who heads the committee, since Southwest is one of the few airlines financially positioned for growth and may stand to benefit the most from McCarran improvements.

The airline committee's letter specifically asked McCarran officials to put off building Terminal 3 and a heliport near Sloan. In July, Walker told commissioners he thought the Terminal 3 project should go forward, and they agreed with him. Walker told commissioners he would report back in August with his assessment of other capital projects.

That came Aug. 19.

At that meeting, the commission delayed or eliminated $359.9 million worth of McCarran capital improvements, but spared the $114.5 million remote heliport for air tours. Walker had the heliport on his list of projects that could be delayed.

We'll probably never know whether Walker really wanted to put off the heliport or if he knew the commission wouldn't do that because of the political implications. Commissioners voted unanimously to keep the heliport project, citing commitments to constituents to address noise complaints resulting from tour helicopters flying routes to the Grand Canyon from McCarran.

If the heliport is built near Sloan as planned, the noise issue would go away. If it was scratched, tour helicopters could continue to use McCarran, resulting in a noise path extending east roughly along Tropicana Avenue. Or, helicopters could move to another Clark County airport, such as Henderson Executive Airport, and the noise issue would move to another location.

Commissioners agreed the best solution was to keep the project alive. An environmental assessment of the heliport, located just off Interstate 15, is about 15 percent complete, and ground is expected to be broken on the project in about a year.

But Walker suggested eliminating or delaying another $359.9 million worth of projects that should provide some relief to the airlines - but not much, compared with what the airlines wanted to get rid of.

Walker's recommendation included nine projects to be deferred, probably until sometime after 2013, and one to be killed.

The project to be eliminated is a $10 million "vertical circulation" near Terminal 1's baggage claim area. That's elevators and escalators connecting the baggage claim area to McCarran's so-called "Zero Level." Walker said he was considering establishing an area for hotel and resort shuttles to drop off and pick up passengers. Buses and limousines currently do that at Zero Level and if more resorts decide to offer that service, the elevator and escalator circulation would have to be improved.

The decision to offer to eliminate the project is based on the entire problem going away as soon as Terminal 3 is built. Much of the pickup and dropping off of passengers - including those from resort shuttles - would move there. So, if the Zero Level project were done, it would only be in use for a short time before a better solution would occur.

Walker took county commissioners through the entire list of projects for deferral. The biggest one is a $215 million reconstruction of one of the airport's east-west runways. Walker wants to turn the asphalt runway into a more durable concrete surface.

Also on the deferral list: an aircraft overnight parking area on the east side of the airport ($37.3 million in savings); an upgraded airfield perimeter intrusion system ($5 million); upgraded curbside signs ($6 million); a redundant baggage handling system ($9.3 million); various Terminal 2 improvements, including the replacement of ceiling tiles ($1 million); work on the center bore of the airport tunnel to improve vehicle circulation ($54.7 million); improvements to Paradise Road ($11 million); and other miscellaneous support projects ($10.5 million).

Other significant news coming out of McCarran involves the big changes ahead for airport parking.

When county commissioners gave the green light for Terminal 3 construction to continue, it put parking changes in motion since the construction site will soon absorb McCarran's existing economy lot.

Anyone planning to use long-term parking at McCarran in the next three months needs to keep up with what parking is open and what's not.

Last week, a 1,950-space remote parking lot opened just east of the McCarran Rent-A-Car Center at Gilespie Street and Warm Springs Road.

Beginning Sept. 2, McCarran will stop allowing people to park at the existing economy lot, located along Flight Path Road just east of Paradise Road. By Sept. 15, McCarran wants all cars gone from that lot.

By Thanksgiving, the start of the holiday travel rush, a 5,100-space economy lot will open on the west side of Paradise Road just south of Tropicana Avenue. Two overflow lots also will be available during peak times, one between Paradise and Swenson Street, just east of the new economy lot, and the other between Paradise and Swenson just north of Tropicana, not far from the Thomas & Mack Center.

This new parking setup will be in operation through mid-2012 when a 6,000-space parking garage adjacent to Terminal 3 opens.

In the early going, it may be best to call the McCarran Parking Hotline at 261-5122, to find out which lots have spaces available before making the trip to the airport.

United Airlines apparently is proving the axiom that there's no such thing as a free lunch.

In a cost-cutting move, United plans to stop offering complimentary meals in coach on international flights, drop free meals for business class on domestic flights, charge $7 for onboard meals and stop handing out free pretzels and cookies to coach passengers across North America, all according to a memo sent to UAL employees obtained last week by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Chronicle opined that United may be trying to wrest away Time magazine's dubious designation of US Airways being "the world's stingiest airline." US Airways recently announced it would charge passengers for sodas and bottled water.

A number of airlines have announced plans to offer Internet access on their flights, but it appears the first company to succeed is American Airlines, which began offering its Gogo Internet access from Itasca, Ill.-based Aircell on the airline's fleet of Boeing 767 jets.

American uses the 767 on routes linking New York with Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami.

The service is offered for $12.95 a flight.