After a WestJet system-wide outage led to flight delays and cancellations throughout the weekend, another blast of winter in the Okanagan is once again keeping passengers grounded at the Kelowna International Airport.
WestJet says it had to cancel more than 200 flights due to a technical outage over the weekend, and it’s leaving some air travellers in Kelowna scrambling to get home.
“My mother-in-law who is 90 lives with us, and so now we have to try and find care for an extra two days for her, as well as our livestock, plus we have to find another hotel to stay in,” said Kori Landels of Campbell River, B.C.
“We need to get home.”
The stranded WestJet passenger says the company has offered very little support.
“He didn’t offer any compensation,” said Landels of the service agent. “He basically said we needed to accept this ’cause there was nothing they could do.”
Unfortunately for some travellers looking to fly out of Kelowna, delays and cancellations are expected to continue.
“We expect between the technical outage of WestJet and the weather delays that there will be another day or two of interesting struggles for the passengers,” said Phillip Elchitz, senior manager of airport operations at YLW.
The airport said they had no choice but to cancel a significant number of flights due to the weather.
“We’re seeing low visibility, high winds from the north and low ceilings,” expressed Elchitz. “What that’s doing is that’s making it very challenging for an aircraft to land in Kelowna because of the local weather.”
Meanwhile, a man from the United States trying to fly to Toronto to see family says while the delay to his flight caused by weather has been a bit of a letdown, he’s trying to remain positive.
“I was due to see my sister after four years in Toronto, then fly back to the U.S. in Washington D.C.,” said stranded traveller Ramin Azhadi. “We’ll see what happens with the weather.”
YLW said they apologize for the delays and are hopeful that operations will return to normal in the next few days.
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