Reno Tahoe International Airport

Reno-Tahoe International is the primary commercial airport for northern Nevada and the eastern Sierra Nevada, and its dual-city naming is functionally accurate: the airport is a roughly equal gateway to Reno's casino economy, Nevada's state capital at Carson City, and the Lake Tahoe basin — the largest alpine lake in North America and the anchor of a year-round resort economy that includes Palisades Tahoe, Heavenly, and Northstar. RNO sits at 4,415 ft (1,345 m) elevation, making it one of the highest major airports in the lower 48 states and giving it high-altitude takeoff performance penalties that shape aircraft selection on longer routes. Three runways (including an 11,001 ft / 3,353 m primary) handle around 82 routes to 54 destinations via 20 airlines. Southwest Airlines is the dominant carrier, with American, Delta, United, Alaska, and JetBlue operating substantial schedules; seasonal ski-season service from the East Coast and upper Midwest reflects the airport's status as the nearest major commercial gateway to the Tahoe ski resorts. Cargo operations for FedEx and UPS occupy the north side of the field, which also hosts a Nevada Air National Guard refueling wing. The airport is owned by the Reno-Tahoe Airport Authority and has pursued a multi-year, $1B-plus capital program since 2020 to rebuild concourses, add gates, and modernize the central terminal — a response to steady traffic growth driven by Nevada's tax-driven corporate relocation trend (Tesla's Sparks gigafactory, Apple's Reno data center, and Switch's Tahoe Reno Industrial Center all lie within 30 minutes of RNO). Traffic reached a record 4.4M passengers in 2023.