Storms cause mass cancellations at YLW

There’s no guarantee every traveller using Kelowna International Airport (YLW) will get to their destination in time for Christmas, after a flurry of weather-related cancellations.

As of Tuesday morning, the airport was desolate with the departure and arrivals boards a sea of red.

Poor visibility at YLW and the shutdown of so-called feeder airports such as Vancouver and Victoria, caused the bulk of the problems, according to the airport's director Sam Samaddar.

“We may have a few departures, but the balance of the schedule is cancelled into the afternoon," he told Kelowna10. “I’d rather see it desolate than us having to manage a whole bunch of people.”

Samaddar said passengers were informed of widespread cancellations Monday night so they didn’t show up Tuesday morning.

“What we don’t control is the weather. In our case, our runway is in full operation and ready to go … but you get into things like visibility and weather that may be happening at other airports that is having an impact. That’s the frustrating piece,” Samaddar explained.

The grim news for some passengers is while some airlines can try to catch up on the backlog, it’s getting tight in terms of any re-scheduling possibilities in the coming week.

“As we get close to the peak period into Christmas that becomes more and more difficult and I just want the public to be aware of that. They may not get to their destination over the holiday period,” Samaddar said.

Passenger Jess Tidswell, a classifier who worked on the para-snowboarding event at Big White over the weekend, was supposed to be going home to Salt Lake City via Calgary.

But she’s now in for a very long wait.

“I just spoke to Delta and good news … I can get home on the 24!" she said. “I’ll make some friends, stay in a hotel …there’s not much we can do. Happy holidays to everybody.”

Dressed in her holiday outfit, another passenger, Samantha, had the look of someone who had slept on the floor overnight after her flight to Ontario was delayed three times and then cancelled Monday night. She’s been told she’ll get out at 6 p.m.

“I’m trying to stay festive,” she said through blurry eyes. “ I have three dogs waiting for me at home that my gracious roommate is looking after for me. I need to get home to my dogs.”

Some airlines were showing flights were on schedule for Tuesday afternoon, but it’s highly recommended passengers keep checking online to get the latest updates.