By Chad Klassen

First direct flight from Toronto arrives on historic day at Kamloops Airport

Jun 21, 2018 | 2:56 PM

KAMLOOPS — Thursday marked a historic day at the Kamloops Airport, as the first direct flight from Toronto to Kamloops landed at YKA. 

The new route, which will run three days a week, comes after years of negotiation with Air Canada, and the hope is the seasonal flight will become a permanent fixture to help lift tourist numbers even higher.

“We’re pleased to have the Toronto market open up,” said Kamloops Airport manager Heather McCarley. “In addition to Air Canada’s global network, it means it opens the Kamloops region up to not just the rest of Canada but really to the world.”

As the first passengers walked off the inaugural Kamloops to Toronto Air Canada flight on Thursday morning, they were greeted warmly by mayor Ken Christian and other city delegates. 

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The North family arrived in Kamloops from their home in Newfoundland. Their son has lived in Kamloops for fours years now. Ed North says it will save them three hours every time they come. 

“Very convenient with the one stop over in Toronto,” he said. “We flew from Deer Lake, Newfoundland early this morning, a stopover in Toronto for about an hour, catch the flight directly to here.”

Going the other way to Toronto on day one was Terry Sullivan, the former district superintendent who will use it often. 

“I think it’s just great. I go to Toronto probably four to five times a year,” said Sullivan, who serves on numerous boards back east. “For me it’s certainly going to make my life a lot easier, and I do some international work and it gives me another option as far as that’s concerned as well.”

The Kamloops-Toronto flight has been in the works for a few years now. It’s hoped the new route widens the scope of tourists and welcomes more international visitors. 

“We welcome a lot of German and U.K. visitors and those flights fly direct into Toronto, and the connections are not bad flying from Toronto to the Kamloops Airport. We’re hoping that might boost that as well,” said executive director of Tourism Kamloops Beverley DeSantis. 

Air Canada is taking a shot with this flight, but the airline feels it’s the right time for Kamloops. 

“It means a lot to this community. It means a lot to us because it’s a new flight, a seasonal flight, and it’s a community that we think is ready to connect directly to Toronto,” said Air Canada director of government relations in Western Canada Serge Corbeil. “We think the traffic is there. It’s up to the community now to embrace the service and use it.”

The flight runs once a day on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and Air Canada says it will monitor the numbers. If successful, the airline will extend the flight into the winter

“They’ll look at, was the premium economy cabin successful as well as the economy cabin?” said Corbeil. “Was the mix really good? Was the inbound flight well sold, as well as the outbound?”