For the first time, passengers arriving at Harry Reid International Airport can step out of a plane and into an underground tunnel system within minutes. The Boring Company's Vegas Loop just won the regulatory green light to ferry travelers between the airport and nearby resorts — a modest but symbolic shift in how people might move through Las Vegas.
The approval came quietly last week when Nevada regulators granted the Automated Vehicle Identification permit. Starting now, Loop vehicles can legally operate on airport property during departure hours (10 a.m. to 9 p.m.), dropping passengers at the departures curb. A one-way trip costs around $12.
Right now, the setup is hybrid. Passengers board at Resorts World or Westgate, travel through tunnels for part of the journey, then surface onto city streets for the final stretch to the airport terminals. It's not seamless — regulators capped surface travel at four miles per trip — but it works. The Vegas Loop currently operates about four miles of its completed 10-mile tunnel network, with stations at Encore, Resorts World, Westgate, and across the convention center campus.
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This is explicitly temporary. The real shift arrives in early 2026, when the Airport Connector — a dedicated 2.25-mile pair of tunnels — should open. Once that's live, most airport trips will stay underground, cutting travel time and eliminating the awkward surface segment. The Connector will feed into a larger University Center Loop being built beneath Paradise Road, with planned stops near UNLV, Virgin Hotels, and the Sphere.
The ambition is staggering. At full build-out, the Vegas Loop plans to sprawl 68 miles across 104 stations, stitching together the Strip, downtown, Chinatown, Allegiant Stadium, and the airport into one network. For now, you get a $12 ride through partial tunnels. In a few years, that could look very different.
The timing matters. CES kicks off next month, bringing thousands of visitors who'll be curious about any new way to move around the city. This airport launch is less about the service itself — which remains limited and hybrid — and more about proving the concept works under regulatory scrutiny. That's the harder part.
