South Okanagan residents invited to comment on Kelowna airport’s future plans

PENTICTON – Kelowna International Airport officials want to hear what residents of Penticton and the South Okanagan think of the airport’s plans for the future.

Kelowna International Airport senior manager Phillip Elchitz summarized the airport’s preliminary draft summary of its master plan for Penticton city council this week.

Elchitz says of the airport’s present load of 1.6 million annual passengers, roughly half of those originated outside Kelowna. He hopes people in the South Okanagan will fill out the online survey.

The airport projects passenger growth to continue at three per cent annually to 3.6 million passengers by 2045.

Future airport expansion is expected to include parking, baggage handling facilities, expanded holdroom capacities and larger baggage claim areas, Elchitz says. The airport will continue to purchase adjacent lands for future expansion, including property at the end of the runway for expanded safety zones required by new regulations.

He says the airport is focussed domestically on travel to Toronto with 10 non-stop flights planned weekly to that city this winter.

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