Kelowna International Airport

Kelowna International Airport
IATA: YLW – ICAO: CYLW – WMO: 71203
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Transport Canada[1]
Operator	City of Kelowna
Serves	Kelowna, British Columbia
Hub for	Flair Airlines KF Cargo
Time zone	PST (UTC−08:00)
• Summer (DST)	PDT (UTC−07:00)
Elevation AMSL	1,420 ft / 433 m
Coordinates	49°57′26″N 119°22′40″W / 49.95722°N 119.37778°W / 49.95722; -119.37778Coordinates: 49°57′26″N 119°22′40″W / 49.95722°N 119.37778°W / 49.95722; -119.37778
Website	www.kelowna.ca
Map
CYLW Location in British Columbia
Runways
Direction Length Surface ft m 16/34 8,900 2,713 Asphalt
Statistics (2014)
Aircraft movements 77,492 Passengers 1,602,899
Sources: Canada Flight Supplement[2] Environment Canada[3] Movements from Statistics Canada[4] Passenger statistics from City of Kelowna (2014).[5]

Kelowna International Airport (IATA: YLW, ICAO: CYLW) is a Canadian airport located approximately 10 minutes or 6.2 nautical miles (11.5 km; 7.1 mi) northeast of Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, on Highway 97.

The single runway airport operates scheduled air service to the major hub airports of Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria, and Seattle, as well as less frequent seasonal service to Cancún, Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Phoenix, and Las Vegas. Currently, the airport handles up to 38 commercial departures a day, or approximately 266 departures per week.

In 2014, the airport was among the busiest airports in Canada by number of passengers with 1,602,899, representing a 6.5% increase over 2013.^[5]

Terminal facilities

Interior of the airport terminal's check-in area.

Departure lounge of the airport.

Today, the recently expanded main terminal building is a modern, full-service facility covering approximately 76,000 sq ft (7,100 m²). There are 10 aircraft loading positions, all of which but two are fitted with jet bridges. The arrivals area contains three baggage carousels, one of which can be cordoned off to accommodate international/US arrivals (and remaining two for domestic arrivals) and Canadian Customs processing (The airport has CATSA pre-board screening area, but not US pre-boarding clearance zone).

Several food and beverage services, including Tim Horton's and White Spot Legends Restaurant, newsstands (Skyway Gifts and News), and tourist-related retail stores (Okanagan Estate Wine Cellar), in addition to a limited selection of duty-free goods (Okanagan Style and Duty Free), can be found in the terminal. The departure lounge features a wired business centre and complimentary wireless Internet. The airport's focal point is a glass rotunda which contains a fountain and the cylindrical glass sculpture "Escape from Stella Polaris" and Skyway Atrium Lounge. Kelowna Art Gallery operates a satellite site at the airport. A small observation area is located on the mezzanine level.

Airlines and destinations

Key destinations from the airport are Pacific Northwest (US and Canada), Western Canada, Northern Canada, Toronto as well as seasonal connections to Las Vegas, Mexico and Caribbean.

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

Annual traffic

Ground transportation

Cars, buses and taxis can connect to the airport for Kelowna via Highway 97N. The airport has an outdoor parking lot next to the terminal and some short term spaces near the terminal building.

Public transit

The airport is serviced by Kelowna Regional Route 23 and Vernon Regional Route 90 (rush hour service only) buses, which connect Vernon and Lake Country with UBC Okanagan Exchange in Kelowna. The airport is not served by the bus on evenings and weekends.^[8] Passengers heading to downtown Kelowna or West Kelowna can transfer to 97X express bus at UBC Okanagan Exchange.

Future expansion

In 2006, the Kelowna International Airport Advisory Committee created the Master Plan 2025, a document dedicated to the expansion of the Kelowna International Airport. The Plan is expected to cost approximately $150 million. Due to YLW's unprecedented growth, a Master Plan was required to aid in keeping the airport at modern traffic handling standards. By 2008, the airport lengthened the single runway to 8,900 ft (2,700 m), and plans to lengthen to 10,000 ft (3,000 m) by 2025. Also, the passenger terminal has been expanded so as to allow hourly processing of 680 passengers in 2015, and will be further expanded as to allow 900 passengers by 2025. Currently, the hourly rate is approximately 400 passengers. In order to do this, the terminal size will be nearly doubled, and a 2,400 space parkade will be constructed. Also, to reduce vehicular traffic congestion, a diamond overpass/underpass interchange will be constructed at the current intersection of Highway 97 and Airport Way.^[9]

Accidents and incidents

• July 14, 1986: Pacific Western Airlines Flight 117, a Boeing 737-200 flying from Calgary International Airport to Vancouver International Airport with a stop in Kelowna, left the runway while landing in Kelowna and came to rest approximately 1,300 ft (400 m) beyond the end of the runway. No fatalities or serious injuries were reported, however, 5 crew members and 76 passengers suffered minor injuries.^[10]
• February 4, 2009: At 10:40 PST, a two-seat Cessna 152 coming from Salmon Arm crash-landed on Kelowna Airport's main runway. The two passengers on board were uninjured.
• January 7, 2013: WestJet Flight 150, a Boeing 737-700 scheduled to depart at 07:00 PST to Edmonton International Airport, slid off the tarmac in Kelowna while it was taxiing to be de-iced during a heavy snowfall.^[11] No injuries were reported among the 134 passengers on board.^[11]
• October 13, 2016: Former Alberta premier Jim Prentice was among the four people killed in a small-plane crash in British Columbia that took off from Kelowna Airport. Prentice, 60, was aboard a twin-engine Cessna Citation that disappeared from radar shortly after takeoff from Kelowna, en route to the Springbank Airport, just outside Calgary.^[12]

References

External links

• Kelowna International Airport Page from the City of Kelowna web site
• Master Plan 2025
• Travel By Air Page from the Tourism Kelowna web site
• Page about this airport on COPA's Places to Fly airport directory

• Past three hours METARs, SPECI and current TAFs for Kelowna International Airport from Nav Canada as available.