KLAS - Departure Runway

dualrated19 Newcomer

Just a question from a pilot (hopefully someone working at Las Vegas or with knowledge of the airport can help me with this one):

When departing from KLAS, the FBO that I park at is located at the departure end of 19R. We were assigned the departure from 25L (located someone in Mexico since the taxi took so long, not to mention being #11 behind all of southwest departures).

When requesting RW19R, the ground controller asked if we needed it due to operational necessity. We looked at the SID requirements; it looks like it actually has a higher climb requirement than the further runway.
Runway lengths are all about the same.... can anyone shed some light on this?

Sometimes we are allowed to depart RW19R with no issues... just didn't know what the "operational" issue is between the two runways.

Thanks

boondr PHD without a degree North of the Equator

Can't speak to LAS but most busier airports have dedicated departure and arrival runways because of operational necessity in the radar environment. The configuration is based on weather/wind/arrival rates. Sometimes departing on 19r might be kosher with the current configuration, at other time it may be departing onto a busy arrival runway during a push or into a downwind pattern

Roddy_Piper Resident Knucklehead Vegas baby

i wish i could give u a good answer, but i would need more info. were u by chance on the STAAV4 departure? if so, u can only depart 25R on configuration #1...which i take we were on because u mentioned both 25R and 19R. what type aircraft were u? u had to be a jet, or the preferred non-jet departure runway is 19R on a 175 heading.

during those big departure pushes the tower will try to get everyone on 25R. it's just easier for them to depart everyone from the same runway (25R) than it is to shoot the gaps off of 19R...19R/L intersects with 25R.

Roddy_Piper Resident Knucklehead Vegas baby

if u are operationally required to use 19R instead of 25R then the tower will make it happen. if not, then you'll go into the flow off of 25R like everyone else.

u must've been parking at signature i take it?