Cold weather has caused flight delays and cancellations at the Kelowna International Airport.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ @gursharn_04

Many travellers going through the Kelowna International Airport experienced flight delays and cancellations from the cold weather.

“We’ve had a combination of delayed flights, and we’ve had some cancellations as part of the peak winter operations at the airport,” airport director Sam Samaddar said. “With extreme temperatures, parts of the system can break down.”

Not only is the cold weather hard on the aircraft, but also on ground equipment, and the baggage system.

“This kind of weather certainly plays a very different role in ensuring things stay operational,” Samaddar said.

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“There’s peak travel, the aircrafts are running at full capacity, weather can create delays, then, of course, we’re dealing with the additional requirements on the bio-health side. All these things add time to the sequence of dealing with aircraft.”

During the holidays, flights can be cancelled due to the crew timing out.

“There’s a standard on how many hours in a day the crew can work, and if they are working over the hours, they can no longer operate the aircraft, and the flight is cancelled,” Samaddar said. “At this time of the year, that can happen because of all the operational challenges we’re dealing with.”

Samaddar commended airport staffers for their work throughout the holidays to ensure operations continued.

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For the most part, passengers were patient if their flight was delayed during the holiday rush, however, there were individual cases where people became boisterous.

The RCMP were called in one instance to mediate when a passenger became irate, according to a media report.

“I remind the traveling public, nobody is doing this on purpose, they are trying to help the passenger, safety is the most critical aspect of what we do. There are things that happen beyond our control, from a mechanical issue, weather, and the system operating at capacity,” Samaddar said.

“The last thing an airline wants to do is cancel a fight, but it’s the reality of this time of year, and the challenges that we face,” he said. “Continue to be patient, the frontline staff are doing the best job that they can with all the different variables and circumstances they are dealing with.”

Visit the airport website for up to date departure times.

There are currently about 50 flights departing from the airport every day. Samaddar anticipates December will be the busiest month the airport has seen since the start of the pandemic, with approximately 150 thousand passengers going through.

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