Kelowna’s airport infrastructure may be slated for expansion, but its often celebrated passenger numbers are starting to shrink.
“Our passenger numbers have seen a slight dip. We are at 0.5 per cent less in passenger numbers compared to the same period last year. However, up to January we have just had 25 consecutive record breaking months at YLW,” said Jenelle Hynes, the airport’s business development and community relations manager in an email, adding that some “levelling out is expected.”
There’s no clear indication of what caused numbers to level out, but the unexpected loss of a route that won significant local fanfare when it was launched May 2014 could have contributed.
The United Airways link from San Francisco to Kelowna’s YLW was quietly axed in April 2015, after only getting underway in the previous September. Despite initial announcements indicating it would be a year round service it was only ever offered seasonally, and replaced United’s service to LA.
“That the route did not meet our expectations,” said United representative Jennifer Dohm, noting that she couldn’t offer insights into passenger numbers, or anything else.
The decision to not report the shutdown of a route touted as a major boost to the Okanagan’s high tech and tourism sectors until months after service stopped was out of local airport staffs’ hands—just as the decision to end the route was, said Hynes.
“United has shifted its strategy away from transborder markets and in 2014/15 United ended service on 13 Canada routes – included (Kelowna) to (San Francisco),” she said.
“It is unfortunate, however the change in direction with United was out of our control. When United switched their daily flight from Los Angeles to their main California hub of (San Francisco), there wasn’t a lot of time allowed to build up consistent service for the route and United’s strategy change in trans-border markets, having only one flight at YLW was easy to reduce.”
Hynes said air service development and retention continues to be a key priority at the airport, however, there have been some other changes to available service—albeit on a much smaller scale.
Pacific Coastal Airlines launched Sunday through Friday service from Trail to Kelowna in January. By May, the small 19 seater aircraft stopped running. At the time, the mayor of Trail, Mike Martin, was quoted saying, “we were hopeful this route would be well-used by leisure, business and medical travellers in the region; however the numbers show us this is not the case.”
Quickly stopped attempts at expanding services at the local airport don’t cause any concerns for those who look to it as a key contributor to their business model, said Nancy Cameron, CEO of Tourism Kelowna.
“The loss of the San Francisco non stop route is unfortunate, for sure,” said Cameron. “However we still have excellent connectivity to the US through Seattle and that reduces the impact.”
Cameron also pointed out it bodes well that there was ever full scale service to Kelowna from San Francisco.
“It showed there was an awareness, and over time that route can come back,” she said.
In April Kelowna airport officials unveiled their latest plans for expansion at YLW—a multi-year $55.6 million plan that will see improvements and additions to the baggage handling system, plane parking area, departure lounge, check-in area and taxiway.
The work, to be started in June and carried out over the next five years, is part of a $92 million airport improvement plan started in 2008.
With future growth in mind, the air-side operations will be built to a standard that could accommodate some of the largest aircraft currently in use.
YLW will be able to handle aircraft such as the 250-seat Boeing 787 Dreamliner, but it is still many years away from welcoming such large aircraft. That could come when or if YLW gets direct air service to Europe.
Currently, the largest aircraft using YLW carry about 180 passengers.
YLW offers non-stop flights to seven of the top 35 hub airports in North America and serving over 1.6 million passengers in 2014.
