Flights take off again at Kamloops Airport, smoke impacting passenger numbers

Some flights were first cancelled late last week due to the heavy smoke — with all flights cancelled at YKA starting on Saturday. It forced the airlines to bus travellers down to Kelowna when possible.

However, the Kelowna International Airport also grounded flights as well, causing travel chaos in the B.C. Interior over the long weekend.

“[Kelowna] had some significant disruptions as well like we did. We don’t have as many flights during the day, but any impact this time of year when people are just starting to travel again is significant for the community.”

The Kamloops Airport had just been ramping up flights with services to Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton among other destinations following a significant downturn due to the pandemic.

YKA expects to see a small decrease in passenger numbers due to the smoke.

“This has impacted our numbers,” said Ratuski. “Once we get them, probably in the next few days, we’ll see a decline at the end of the month [July] when we normally would’ve been seeing a signficant increase in travel.”

Ratuski says the smoke this summer has interrupted overall passenger projections, keeping numbers from taking off.

“The numbers are still low — down about 80 per cent of pre-COVID level, but we were expecting to see them improve to more at that 40 per cent range as we went through the busy summer season,” he said. “But the smoke and the wildfire activities have obviously had an impact on the passenger traffic.”

For passengers like Pearson, it’s nice to be travelling again and not to be delayed by wildfire smoke.

by Chad Klassen

Flights take off again at Kamloops Airport, smoke impacting passenger numbers

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