KAMLOOPS — The terminal at Fulton Field is bustling with holiday travellers, waiting to board a plane to visit friends and family over Christmas.
It’s the busiest time of year at the Kamloops Airport, with flights departing on average almost twice every hour.
WATCH ABOVE: Travel tips for the busy holiday season
“Most of the flights are booked. The seats are sold now,” says Airport Managing Director Fred Legace. “It is the busiest short travel period of the year.”
The airport will get even busier between Christmas and New Year’s, but for now every seat is sold for flights leading up to Christmas. That includes nine daily flights to Vancouver, and a half a dozen more to Edmonton and Calgary.
For anyone leaving town, airport authorities have some advice to make an already stressful Christmas season less so.
“There’s the usual stuff around Christmas. Travelling with gifts, make sure they’re unwrapped. But some of the things that trip people up, especially in the holiday season when there’s a lot of excitement to get going [is] identification. Everybody, kids over the age of 17, need identification,” notes Legace.
For those deciding to hit the road this holiday, the forecast is actually looking quite favourable right through Christmas day, especially on the Coquihalla.
Only Tuesday night will there be snow on Highway 5 between Hope and Merritt.
“I’m thinking maybe about five to eight centimetres across that region. So perhaps tonight isn’t the best time to go,” says Lisa Coldswell from Environment Canada. “By tomorrow, it’s just going to be generally cloudy and one or two flurries as you’re going southward.”
The relatively clear forecast is also good news for the airport and people using it to travel, although it doesn’t mean there won’t be any delays.
“The Christmas season, especially in Western Canada, is looking pretty good. Not a lot of major storms,” says Legace. “[But] the thing with aviation is, it’s an integrated system, so a massive storm in Saskatoon can have an effect in Kamloops because it causes delays that build up.”
Environment Canada says a snow storm is on its way closer to the weekend, a warning for anyone heading back to Kamloops after Christmas.
But regardless of how and when you’re travelling during the holidays, give yourself plenty of time, take it slow, and have a little patience as you come together to see loved one.
