10K passengers a day to pass through YLW during peak holiday season

With holiday travel well underway, the Kelowna International Airport is urging passengers to “show a lot of patience.”

On its busiest days during the peak holiday period, the airport expects to serve around 10,000 passengers each day.

Airport director Sam Samaddar said that translates into longer line-ups and busy parking lots.

As of Sunday morning, Samaddar said the airport’s parking lots are already at 80 per cent capacity.

While there is overflow parking, if the regular lots fill up, Samaddar is urging travelers to use taxis or find a ride to the airport and to be patient.

“We do have this wildcard, which is weather, which you can’t control so show a lot of patience, get to the airport well in advance, 90 minutes before your flight time,” Samaddar said.

While the recent snowstorm didn’t impact the airport’s operations, fog grounded several flights on Saturday evening.

0:30 Timelapse shows Earth’s weather pattern every day of the year

Samaddar is not ruling out further weather challenges this holiday season.

“We’ve had a lot of rain and we are right in that fluctuation of weather between freezing and not freezing so there is absolutely potential for fog at this time of the year,” Samaddar said.

Driving home for the holidays?

Driving out of the Okanagan to see loved ones is posing its own set of challenges.

During a wallop of winter weather this past week, Highway 3 and the Coquihalla both saw closures making it challenging to get from B.C.’s Southern Interior to the Lower Mainland.

Highway 1 was also briefly closed near Boston Bar due to a rock slide.

2:26 Winter storm dumps dangerous amounts of snow on B.C. highways

Samaddar said one airline added extra flights to YVR, Edmonton and Abbotsford during the highway closures to prevent travelers from getting stuck.

As of Sunday afternoon, the highway weather had mellowed out with no weather warnings from Environment Canada for B.C.’s Southern Interior.

The national forecaster is predicting small amounts of snow overnight on Interior highways including 2 to 4 cm on the Okanagan Connector between Merritt and Kelowna.

A mix of sun and cloud is then expected on Monday, Dec. 23 for the Coquihalla and Okanagan Connectors while Environment Canada is predicting possible flurries on Highway 3 and the Trans Canada Highway.

Still ICBC is urging drivers take precautions, noting that each year between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, on average, 45 people are hurt in 180 crashes B.C.’s Southern Interior.

– with files from Jules Knox, Simon Little and Sean Boynton