Flights delayed at YLW

If you’re picking up a passenger from Kelowna International Airport (YLW) today, you may want to check the flight status.

Several arriving and departing flights have been delayed.

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“There are a few unassociated reasons for the delays in Kelowna,” said Lauren Stewart, Media Relations Advisor for WestJet. “Both Calgary and Vancouver flights were delayed due to deicing issues earlier today. The Victoria flight was delayed because of a maintenance issue we had in Saskatoon earlier this morning.”

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Kelowna International Airport emergency operations manager Sean Parker said the aircrafts are arriving to Kelowna late and it is causing a snowball effect.

“Any of the flights coming out of the prairies right now are going through massive deicing because the temperatures are so cold and they’ve had quite abit of snow,” he said.

Parker doesn’t expect any major disruption in service and no flight cancellations have been reported.

“I think until the temperatures increase in the prairies I don’t think we’re going to see a slowdown in delays coming from the east. I don’t anticipate major problems here at YLW. I think the day is going to have some minor delays but nothing dramatic,” he said.

A special weather statement has been issued for the Okanagan Valley and several motor vehicle accidents have been reported on the roads due to slippery conditions.

Environment Canada says up to four centimetres of snowfall is forecast today and up to 10 centimetres is expected on Thursday.

A winter storm warning has been issued for the Fraser Valley and a snowfall warning for Metro Vancouver with up to 15 centimetres of snowfall expected.