Kelowna International Airport is on track for its busiest year yet, and the summer season is expected to be just as busy.
Airport operations director Phillip Elchitz says that in order for YLW to meet its increase in passengers, additional flights have been added.
"We are looking at a really robust schedule for 2024."
"We have an increase in traffic and flights to Winnipeg... we are going direct to Winnipeg this year, we are going direct to Regina, Saskatoon, and we have seen a number of increases to all of our other routes, particularly Toronto. We are going to have three flights this summer going to Toronto on Flair, Air Canada, and WestJet."
YLW is projecting that 2.17 million passengers will arrive and depart this year.
"We are going to have a record year over 2023, which was bigger than 2019, so we have fully recovered. We actually have more seats now in our market than we had pre-COVID, and that just shows that there is a lot of demand," Elchitz said.
Throughout the busy summer season, YLW is encouraging travellers to do what they can at home before heading to the airport.
"Check in online. Get your ID checked in online, pay any fees that you might have, do your seat selection, and then get to the airport two hours early," Elchitz added.
