FILE PHOTO - A WestJet aircraft is seen at Kelowna's airport on June 30, 2022.

(CARLI BERRY / iNFOnews.ca)

In order to make landing aircraft more reliable at Kelowna International Airport during bad weather, certain parts of the city are going to see more planes than usual.

As it stands now, 75% of flights come into and leave Kelowna on the northern side of the airport. But when there are high winds, which usually means other kinds of bad weather like rain, snow or fog causing low visibility, they have to come in from the south.

If there is clear visibility, when visual flight rules apply, there are many different approaches that can be flown over most areas of the city.

In foul weather the planes will loop a bit further south before flying over the city for instrument landings.

Starting in January, the airport wants to change that route to make it easier to land in bad weather. That will take planes over more of the Lower Mission and East Kelowna areas.

“Residents of Upper and Southwest Mission, Crawford Estates and Southeast Kelowna will see more aircraft directly overhead,” says a City of Kelowna web page detailing the change. “The addition of a second and modified RNP-AR (Required Navigation Performance) approach on runway 34 will allow a wider variety of aircraft to arrive more frequently in low visibility conditions from the south.”

The red line shows the existing flight path for aircraft doing instrument landings from the south. The yellow line is the proposed new route.

Image Credit: Submitted/City of Kelowna

Two open house information sessions will be held to explain the change. One is Nov. 1 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Okanagan Mission Community Hall. The other is Nov. 2 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Rutland Centennial Hall.

In addition, information will be available at the Oct. 28, YLW Fall Travel Show from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at KF Centre for Excellence.

READ MORE: Why wildfires closed Kelowna airport this time and not others

The new flight path falls under what is called a Continuous Descent Operation classification, which allows planes to fly on a low thrust setting, making the approaches quieter with fewer emissions, the city says.

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