It is by far one of the airport’s busiest times of year. Up to 5,000 people a day are expected to move through the Kelowna International Airport during the peak holiday period. That’s roughly 20 per cent more than on an average day.
This year, this Friday and Saturday as well as Dec. 26 and 27 are expected to be peak travel days.
The airport’s advice is to arrive early.
“People tend to still arrive at the airport when they would normally arrive,” Phillip Elchitz, senior manager of airport operations, said.
“What we suggest is that people arrive at the airport a minimum of two hours before their flight, and they come with their gifts wrapped in such a way that they realize they could be opened at pre-board screening.”
Travellers should also be ready for the possibility of delays.
On Sunday some Air Canada flights were delayed. One flight to Vancouver was held up for roughly three hours. The airport said the issue was a contractor had problems with their de-icing trucks. Another company stepped in.
“We had a contingency plan in place that allowed us to start to move aircraft down to that third-party provider to do some deicing, so those aircraft can get off the ground,” said Elchitz.
In a statement, Air Canada said it has reviewed the incident “to ensure the Air Canada’s flights are handled by our ground handler in accordance with all of our service and operations standards,” and apologized to passengers.
Air Canada says passengers were able to disembark during the delay.
The winter weather, like the dump of snow forecast for Tuesday, could mean more delays.
The airport recommends passengers check their flight status online and follow its golden rule of holiday travel: arrive early.