Early blast of winter-like weather leads to flight cancellations and delays at Kelowna airport

At least six out-going flights at the Kelowna airport were cancelled Friday morning because of winter-like conditions.

“We had six flights that were not able to make it in last night so we were behind the eight ball first thing this morning with cancellations,” Kelowna airport director Sam Samaddar said.

The six planes that were unable to land Thursday night would typically overnight in Kelowna and fly out first thing the next morning. But with no aircraft on the tarmac, those flights were cancelled.

As a result, airlines were playing catch-up Friday to deal with the backlog of stranded passengers.

Many flights on Friday also experienced delays because of the time it takes to de-ice the aircraft.

“WestJet has added two flights today, Air Canada has added another two flights and then Central Mountain added a fifth flight, so we have some extra sections to try and catch up with some of those missed flights we had today and yesterday,” Samaddar said.

According to Environment Canada, this is the earliest snowstorm in the valley bottom in 11 years. With winter weather conditions just beginning, airport officials advised passengers to check flight information before heading out to the airport.