Las Vegas flights: getting in from LAS

Q: How much is a taxi from the airport to the Strip?

It is a flat zone fare, not a meter: $22.25 to Zone 1 (Sunset North to Tropicana), $26.25 to Zone 2 (Tropicana North to Flamingo) and $30.25 to Zone 3 (Flamingo North to Stratosphere). Add a $2.40 airport pick-up fee, a $1.00 fuel surcharge, $3.00 if you pay by card and 3 per cent excise tax on all of it — so a Zone 1 ride paid by card comes to about $29.51 and a Zone 3 ride about $37.75, before any tip.

Q: How much is the bus from the airport, and can I use it on the Strip?

RTC residential fares are $2 a single ride or $5 for 24 hours, with 2-hour, 15-day and 30-day passes at $3, $34 and $65. The catch for visitors is that residential passes are only valid on the Deuce and the Strip & Downtown Express with a local I.D. Without one, Strip fares apply: $6 for two hours, $8 for 24 hours, $20 for three days.

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Harry Reid International (LAS) is the only field in the Clark County Department of Aviation system that handles scheduled commercial passenger flights. The other four — Henderson Executive (HND), North Las Vegas (VGT), Jean Sport Aviation Center and Overton/Perkins Field — are general aviation only. There is no cheaper secondary airport to price up and no second arrival to plan around, which removes the question that dominates a New York or London arrival and replaces it with a smaller one: which terminal.

That smaller question turns out to decide the whole transfer. The two terminals are split by airline rather than by destination, and they do not offer the same ground transport: the public bus stop exists at one of them and not the other, and the rideshare pickup is a different walk at each. Nothing runs on rails from the airport to the resorts, so every option below is a road vehicle with a published tariff or an app quote.

Everything here is the figure published by the authority that sets it, checked on the date at the foot of this page. Airfares are not here and never will be — that is what the booking sites are for. For the car hire question, which has its own answer in Las Vegas, see Las Vegas car rental.

One commercial airport, and your airline decides your terminal

The split at LAS is by carrier, not by where you are flying from. Terminal 1 handles five airlines: Allegiant, American, Delta, Southwest and Sun Country. Terminal 3 handles the other twenty-five — Alaska, Breeze, Contour, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Porter and United, plus every international carrier serving the airport, among them Aer Lingus, AeroMexico, Air Canada, Air France, Avianca, British Airways, Condor, Copa, Discover, Edelweiss, Flair, KLM, Korean Air, Virgin Atlantic, VIVA Aerobus, Volaris and WestJet.

In practice that means a domestic arrival on Southwest or Delta lands at the terminal with the bus stop, and every transatlantic, transpacific and Latin American arrival lands at the one without. Taxis queue on the baggage claim level at both terminals, and the airport runs a shuttle between the two on Level Zero, so nothing is unreachable — it is a question of how many vehicles you use before you reach a bed.

The taxi into town is a zone fare, and the zones are not intuitive

Taxis between LAS and the Strip do not run on the meter. The Nevada Taxicab Authority sets three flat zones, and on the current sheet — marked Revised 7-26 and priced at Tier 1 against the PADD 5 West Coast Regular Gasoline Index — they are Zone 1, Sunset North to Tropicana, $22.25; Zone 2, Tropicana North to Flamingo, $26.25; and Zone 3, Flamingo North to Stratosphere, $30.25. The same three fares apply in reverse, Strip to airport.

Which zone your hotel falls in is worth checking before you book it, because the boundaries do not follow the prices people expect. Mandalay Bay, Four Seasons, Luxor, Excalibur, MGM Grand, Virgin Hotel and W Las Vegas are Zone 1. Aria, Bellagio, Vdara, The Cosmopolitan, Park MGM, New York New York, Paris, Planet Hollywood, Horseshoe (previously Bally’s), Polo Towers, Elara, The Signature and Marriott’s Grand Chateau are Zone 2. Caesars Palace, The Venetian, The Palazzo, Wynn, Encore, Treasure Island, The LINQ, Harrah’s, Flamingo, Circus Circus, Resorts World, Fontainebleau, Sahara, Westgate, Stratosphere and the Las Vegas Convention Center are Zone 3.

Two things fall out of that list. Off-Strip does not mean cheaper: the Rio, Gold Coast, Palms and Palace Station all sit in the most expensive zone, while the budget properties named in Zone 1 — Alexis Park, Desert Rose Resort, Howard Johnson, OYO and Motel 6 Tropicana — are in the cheapest. And two mid-Strip landmarks can be two zones apart: MGM Grand and Caesars Palace are separated by $8.00 on the same journey from the same airport.

The flat fare is not the total: four things go on top of it

The Taxicab Authority is explicit that the zone amount is not the bill. Its own FAQ puts the question and answers it: “Do the zones include a credit card fee? No. A card fee may be charged in addition to the zone amount.” The approved fare table sets that card fee at $3.00.

Three more items are added at the airport. A $2.40 Harry Reid International Airport properties fee per pick-up. A $1.00 fuel surcharge on a zone ride — Tier 1 is the active tier under the Authority’s order of 22 April 2023, and Tier 2 ($2.00) or Tier 3 ($3.00) can be switched on if the fuel index climbs. Then a 3 per cent excise tax, stated on the fare table as “3% Excise Tax will be added to all rates and fees” — so it is charged on the surcharges too, not only on the fare.

Run that on the cheapest zone and the published components are $22.25 plus $2.40 plus $1.00, plus 3 per cent: $26.42 in cash, or $29.51 paid by card. The most expensive zone works out at $34.66 in cash and $37.75 by card. Tips are optional and sit on top of all of it.

Two conditions on the flat fare catch people out. It covers a direct trip only — “Any stop outside of one of the three zones will be charged according to the existing meter rates.” And if two parties share a cab to different hotels, only the first leg is a zone fare; the second is “charged as a new trip according to the existing meter rates”. Off-zone the meter is $5.50 to activate and 37 cents per additional eighth of a mile, which the Authority works out as $8.21 for the first mile and $2.96 for each mile after it, with waiting time at $32.40 an hour.

Uber and Lyft do not pick up at the kerb — they pick up in the garage

The single most common mistake at LAS is standing outside baggage claim waiting for a rideshare. Pickup is inside the parking garage at both terminals. At Terminal 1 the airport’s own instruction is “From Baggage Claim, take the elevator near Door 2 up to Level 2. Cross the pedestrian bridge to the parking garage. The pickup area is to the right.” At Terminal 3 it is longer: the lift near Door 52, 54 or 56 up to Level 1, across the pedestrian bridge to the garage, then the lift or stairs back down to the Valet Level.

Only the arriving direction involves that walk. Going home, “Ride Share drop off is at the regular departures curbs at Terminal 1 and Terminal 3”, which is the same kerb any car uses. So the asymmetry is worth planning for: a group with heavy cases arriving at Terminal 3 late at night is choosing between a bridge, two lifts and a garage, or a taxi rank on the level they are already standing on.

There is no published per-trip rideshare fee at LAS in the way there is a $2.40 taxi pick-up fee, so whatever Uber and Lyft add for airport access is visible only inside the app quote. That is the practical difference between the two modes here: the taxi price is set in public by a regulator and the rideshare price is not.

There is no train into town, and the bus serves one terminal only

Plainly: nothing runs on rails between Harry Reid and the city. There is no airport rail link, no metro and no people mover to the resorts, and the Las Vegas Monorail, which runs behind the east-side properties, has no airport station. Every transfer out of LAS is a road vehicle.

Public transport means the RTC bus, and the stop exists at Terminal 1 only, on Level Zero, served by Route 108 Paradise and the Red Line — which the airport confirms is the renamed Route 109 Maryland Parkway. From Terminal 1 baggage claim, take the lift or escalator down, leave the building, cross the pedestrian crosswalk and veer right to the covered RTC bus stop.

Terminal 3, where every international flight arrives, has no bus stop of its own. The airport’s instruction is to “exit Baggage Claim and take the inter-terminal shuttle to Terminal 1” and pick the bus up there — two vehicles and a terminal transfer at the end of a long-haul flight, which is the point at which most arrivals give up and take a cab.

The fares make it worth the effort for a light traveller. RTC residential fares are $2 for a single ride, $3 for a 2-hour pass, $5 for 24 hours, $34 for 15 days and $65 for 30 days, and children of five and under ride free accompanied by an adult. The trap is the pass: RTC states that residential passes are valid on the Strip & Downtown Express and the Deuce only “with a local I.D.” Without one, riding the Deuce along Las Vegas Boulevard costs the Strip fare instead — $6 for two hours, $8 for 24 hours or $20 for three days. More on the Deuce and the intercity coaches on Las Vegas buses.

The rules the Taxicab Authority will enforce on your behalf

Long-hauling — the detour out of the airport through the connector tunnel — is the oldest complaint in Las Vegas ground transport, and the regulator settles the argument in capitals on its own rider sheet: “Use of the I-215 tunnel from McCarran airport is NEVER the shortest route to any strip hotel.” The sheet still uses the airport’s former name. On a zone fare the detour costs you only time; off-zone, it is running on the meter.

The same sheet settles three more arguments at the rank. “Taxicab passengers cannot be charged for the loading/unloading or transporting of their luggage” — there is no bag fee in a Las Vegas cab. The maximum in a sedan-style taxicab is five passengers, which is the number that splits parties into two cars at one in the morning. And tips are optional, not required.

Enforcement is not notional. Taxicab Authority personnel are on duty 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with dispatch on 702-668-4000. If you were charged the wrong zone fare, the Authority asks you to “call 702-668-4005 and file a complaint using the taxi number, taxi company and driver permit information”, or to email taxiauth@taxi.state.nv.us. Note the cab number and the company before you close the door; afterwards it is much harder to make a complaint stick.

Common questions

Which airport do I fly into for Las Vegas?

Harry Reid International (LAS) — there is no choice to make. It is the only airport in the Clark County Department of Aviation system handling scheduled commercial flights; Henderson Executive, North Las Vegas, Jean and Overton/Perkins Field are general aviation only. The decision that does matter is the terminal: five airlines use Terminal 1 and the other twenty-five, including every international carrier, use Terminal 3.

How much is a taxi from the airport to the Strip?

It is a flat zone fare, not a meter: $22.25 to Zone 1 (Sunset North to Tropicana), $26.25 to Zone 2 (Tropicana North to Flamingo) and $30.25 to Zone 3 (Flamingo North to Stratosphere). Add a $2.40 airport pick-up fee, a $1.00 fuel surcharge, $3.00 if you pay by card and 3 per cent excise tax on all of it — so a Zone 1 ride paid by card comes to about $29.51 and a Zone 3 ride about $37.75, before any tip.

Where is the Uber and Lyft pickup at Harry Reid airport?

In the parking garage, not at the kerb. At Terminal 1, take the lift near Door 2 up to Level 2, cross the pedestrian bridge and the pickup area is on the right. At Terminal 3, take the lift near Door 52, 54 or 56 up to Level 1, cross the bridge, then go down to the Valet Level. Drop-off when you leave is at the ordinary departures kerbs, so only the arrival involves the walk.

Is there a train or monorail from the airport into Las Vegas?

No. There is no rail link, no metro and no people mover between Harry Reid and the city, and the Las Vegas Monorail has no airport station. The only public transport is the RTC bus from Terminal 1, Level Zero, on Route 108 Paradise or the Red Line, the renamed Route 109 Maryland Parkway. Everything else is a taxi, a rideshare or a shuttle.

How much is the bus from the airport, and can I use it on the Strip?

RTC residential fares are $2 a single ride or $5 for 24 hours, with 2-hour, 15-day and 30-day passes at $3, $34 and $65. The catch for visitors is that residential passes are only valid on the Deuce and the Strip & Downtown Express with a local I.D. Without one, Strip fares apply: $6 for two hours, $8 for 24 hours, $20 for three days.

Can a Las Vegas taxi charge me for bags or take the long way round?

Neither. The Nevada Taxicab Authority states that passengers cannot be charged for loading, unloading or transporting luggage, and that use of the I-215 tunnel out of the airport is “NEVER the shortest route to any strip hotel”. A sedan-style cab carries five passengers maximum and tips are optional. Complaints about a wrong zone fare go to 702-668-4005 with the cab number, company and driver permit details.

Sources

Fares, journey times and operating rules on this page were checked against these sources on 11 September 2026. Authorities change fares and timetables without notice — confirm anything time-critical on the operator’s own site.

Flights to Las Vegas