United Airlines drops service to Kelowna

KELOWNA – After less than a year of service between Kelowna and San Francisco, United Airlines has departed for good.

The carrier first started service to Kelowna in October of last year and according to airport spokesperson Jenelle Hynes had already decided in December that it just wasn’t economically feasible to continue the once-daily flights between Kelowna and the seventh busiest airport in the U.S.

“United was changing their direction and trying to cut costs,” she says. “When you have an airport that you are only flying to once a day they aren’t huge loads so it was easier for them to reevaluate their trans-border flights.”

Hynes says 12 other cities across Canada also lost their United Airlines flights.

“There are so many factors that come into play,” she says. “It wasn’t just Kelowna it was a bigger decision based on a lot of other airports as well.”

She says the loss of United Airlines, which ended service to Kelowna earlier this spring, could have an effect on overall numbers at Kelowna International Airport but they remain optimistic about the future.

“We’re in a bit of a flat line right now but we’re not too concerned,” she says. “January was another record-breaking month and right now we’re only 0.4 per cent behind this time last year. It’s not a huge change.”

Kelowna International Airport is one of the ten busiest airports in the nation with 1.6 million passengers passing through the gates in 2014.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infonews.ca or call 250-718-0428. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.