Casino Owner Giving Away Free One-Way Flights to Las Vegas

A Las Vegas casino owner is celebrating his casinos’ June 4 reopening by giving away 1,000 free one-way flights to Las Vegas from 24 U.S. cities.

Casino owner Derek Stevens’ flight plan is called “Keep America Flying,” and he is aiming to boost travel across the country, one trip at a time.

“This is a way for Las Vegas to be respectful of the fly-in market,” Stevens told the Las Vegas Journal-Review Wednesday morning. “The drive-in market is very important, but with what’s happened to the airlines, that industry has really been decimated. We wanted to come up with something that helps the U.S. airline industry, and helps support Las Vegas.”

The campaign began Wednesday morning on the D Las Vegas website. According to the website, the flights from all its origination cities were full as of Wednesday.

Those tourists who were lucky enough to snag one of Stevens’ flights had the option to either book a room at the D or book a room at another hotel of their choosing.

“I’m happy if people want to stay with us, obviously,” Stevens said. “But at the same time, if they say, ‘I just want the flight. I’m staying at Wynn, or Caesars or Bellagio. That’s great, too. We’ve just got to get people out to Las Vegas.”

“McCarran airport is the lifeblood of our community,” he added.

When asked to specify how much Stevens’ company invested in this campaign, Stevens said, “I don’t want to get into specifics, but we got some pretty good deals.”