Connecting at Las Vegas: two terminals you can't walk between

Last checked 30 September 2026

A connection is when your trip has two flights and you change planes in between. Las Vegas has two terminal buildings: Terminal 1 (Delta, American, Southwest, Allegiant, Sun Country) and Terminal 3 (United, Alaska, JetBlue, Frontier and every airline from another country). The airport says you can't walk between them.

Two words used below. Security (also called TSA screening) is the checkpoint where your bags go through a scanner and you walk through a body scanner. Once you're through it, you're in the secure area, the part of the airport with the gates. Leave the secure area and you have to go through security again to get back in.

At a glance

• Two terminals, no walkway. Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 are separate buildings. The airport says walking between them is not possible.
• Your airline decides your terminal. Delta, American, Southwest, Allegiant and Sun Country use Terminal 1. United, Alaska, JetBlue, Frontier, Hawaiian and every airline from another country use Terminal 3. Full list below.
• Both flights from the same gate building (for example, both from the D gates): likely a walk inside security, according to a travel website; the airport doesn't say. Ask at your gate if the connection is short, and check your boarding pass or your airline's app for your gates.
• Different terminals: either take the airport's tram (its directions have you go through security once, at the start), or ride the free shuttle bus, which leaves you outside security. That means going through security again at the other end.
• Landing from another country: passport control is at Terminal 3. A typical wait is 18 minutes, but one passenger in ten waits about 54 minutes or longer. Then you collect your bags, drop them off again with your airline, and go through security again.
• Late at night: Terminal 3's main security checkpoint is closed from 1:30 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. Terminal 1's C/D checkpoint is open 24 hours.

Which terminal is my airline in?

This is the terminal where you check in and pick up bags. Terminal 1 has the A, B and C gates in the building, and the D gates reached by tram. Terminal 3 has the E gates in the building.

• Terminal 1: Allegiant, American, Delta, Southwest, Sun Country.
• Terminal 3: Alaska, Breeze, Contour, Discover, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, United, and every airline from another country, including Aer Lingus, Aeroméxico, Air Canada, Air France, Avianca, British Airways, Condor, Copa, Edelweiss, Flair, KLM, Korean Air, Porter, Virgin Atlantic, Viva Aerobus, Volaris and WestJet.

Airlines do move. Sun Country was listed at Terminal 3 in May 2025 and is listed at Terminal 1 now. A flight run for one of these airlines by a smaller partner airline can also sit somewhere else. Always check your boarding pass or your airline's app.

Where the gates are

The terminal you check in at isn't always the building your plane leaves from.

• Terminal 1's own building has the A, B and C gates. Southwest uses the B and C gates. Allegiant uses the A and B gates.
• The D gates are a separate building, reached only by tram. Delta and American check in at Terminal 1 but fly from the D gates. So do United, JetBlue, Breeze and WestJet, which check in at Terminal 3.
• Terminal 3's own building is the E gates, 14 of them. Alaska and most airlines from other countries use them. Frontier uses the D or E gates.

The airport's gate list we could read is from May 2025. Trust your boarding pass over this page.

The airport's trams

There are three tram lines. They are run by the airport, and you reach them after security.

• Green Line: Terminal 1 to the C gates.
• Blue Line: Terminal 1 to the D gates.
• Red Line: Terminal 3 to the D gates.

If your two flights are in different terminals

The airport gives these directions for the tram, and both start at a security checkpoint:

• From Terminal 1 to Terminal 3: go through Terminal 1's C/D security checkpoint. Take the Blue Line to the D gates. Get off, go left, and take the Red Line to Terminal 3.
• From Terminal 3 to Terminal 1: go through security on Level 2. Take the escalators or elevators down to the tram station. Take the Red Line to the D gates. If the D gates aren't where you're going, go right and take the Blue Line to Terminal 1.

What the airport's directions don't say is what to do if you have just landed and are already inside one terminal's secure area. The travel website Upgraded Points reports that you can move between all the gates by tram without going through security again. We couldn't find the airport saying that in so many words. If your connection is short, ask a staff member at your gate before you leave the secure area.

The other way is the free shuttle bus. It runs between Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 about every 20 to 30 minutes, and the ride takes about 10 minutes. At Terminal 1 it leaves from Level 0 of the parking garage. At Terminal 3 it leaves from Level 0, outside, at the west end of the building. Both stops are outside the terminals, which means outside security. Expect to go through security again when you arrive. Upgraded Points says the same.

Landing from another country

Airlines from other countries, and the passport control area, are at Terminal 3. Passport control is the desk where an officer from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) checks your passport. Everyone goes through it, including US citizens.

• How long it takes. Over the year to 23 September 2026, about a million passengers went through passport control at Las Vegas. Half of them waited 18 minutes or less. One in ten waited about 54 minutes or longer, and about 7 in 100 waited over an hour. For comparison, a typical wait at Atlanta is 9 minutes. CBP says these times don't include collecting your bags or finding your way around the airport.
• What happens next. CBP says that when you enter the US from overseas you must collect your bags, take them through Customs, and check them in again with your airline for your next flight. Then you go through security again. This is the normal routine at US airports. There is a trial scheme that lets some passengers skip it, but TSA's announcement of it names only two flights, both from London, to Atlanta and Dallas. Las Vegas isn't one of them.
• If you flew in from Canada, Ireland or another airport that checks you into the US before you fly (this is called preclearance, and CBP's own list includes Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Dublin and Abu Dhabi, among others), you skip passport control and the second security check when you land. Your airline will tell you if your flight is one of these.
• If your next flight leaves from Terminal 1's A, B or C gates, Upgraded Points says you must take the shuttle bus between terminals, so plan on going through security a second time at Terminal 1. If your next flight leaves from the D gates, the Red Line tram from Terminal 3 goes there. Ask your airline where to drop off your bags if it checks in at Terminal 1.

Late-night connections

Terminal 3's main security checkpoint (Level 2, for the D and E gates) is open from 3:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m., so it is closed between 1:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. Terminal 1's C/D checkpoint is open 24 hours. If you land in that window and have to go through security again, ask your airline which checkpoint you should use.

If your flights are on separate tickets

If you booked two flights separately, your airlines aren't looking after the connection for you. You collect your bags, check in again with the second airline at its terminal, and go through security again. If the two airlines are in different terminals, that means the shuttle bus between them and a second security line at the end. Add the time to collect your bags, check in again and go through security.

Tips

• Look up your airline on the list above before you travel, and again when you land. Terminals can change.
• On a US trip booked as one ticket, with bags checked through to your final stop, you normally don't collect them. Ask when you check in. Coming from another country, you normally collect them.
• If your flights are in different terminals, look up the airline for the second flight first. Then work out which route (tram or shuttle bus) you'd take.

GateCast grades your connection from A to F on how likely you are to make it. The grade is an estimate, not a promise. GateCast sees which airlines you're flying, not which gate each flight uses, so at an airport with two terminals like this one, check your boarding pass and add time for any second security check.

Checked 30 September 2026. Terminals, gates and airlines change, so confirm with the airport and your airline before you travel.