Airport has grand plan
Steve MacNaull, 250-470-0767
More passengers, more flights, more destinations, more gates, more parking and more baggage claim.
Kelowna Airport’s Master Plan 2045 outlines a bright future for the facility.
The most dramatic number in the document is the estimate of 3.6 million passengers a year getting on and off planes at YLW by 2045.
In 2015, the passenger count was 1.6 million. But the boost makes sense. Kelowna Airport is a busy hub for the entire Southern Interior and sees a mix of tourist, business and visiting-family-and-friends traffic.
The increase to 3.6 million passengers is based on conservative three per cent annual growth.
Of course, to achieve that growth more planes will have to fly more places.
Currently, 33 commercial passenger planes come and go from the airport to 18 non-stop destinations, including shorthauls to Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Seattle, Winnipeg and Edmonton and farther away to Toronto, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Cancun, Varadero and Cabo.
By 2045, the number of commercial passenger planes coming and going is expected to be 50.
The airport is pursuing non-stops to more sunspot destinations in the Southern U.S. and Caribbean and even non-stops to Europe and Australia to serve skiers who want to come to the Okanagan and Valley residents who want to go abroad.
The length of the runway, 8,900 feet, is long enough to handle the wide-body jets required to make a flight to Europe and-or Australia.
The airport is currently undergoing an expansion that will increase the number of departure gates from 10 to 12, add more check-in counters, arrivals space and baggage claim.
That expansion will handle the growth for years, but there will be need for a new parkade, more baggage claim areas and a few more departure gates. email: steve.macnaull@ok.bc.ca