The Managing Director at Kamloops Airport says airlines in Canada are expecting significant recovery from COVID-19 slowdowns to start happen in mid-2021.

Ed Ratuski says that will however depend on easing travel restrictions both within Canada and around the world as well as a vaccine.

“There is a pent up travel demand for people that haven’t been able to travel to see friends and family over the last kind of six to eight months. That’s where we think once the vaccine is in place, we’ll see those numbers start to recover,” he said, on the NL Noon Report.

Ratuski says for now, they’re looking ahead to what could be a very different winter for air travel in the Tournament Capital.

“We’re starting to get information that Sun Peaks is starting to take bookings from groups from within Canada which is a good sign, and we just want to make sure that we work with the airlines to make sure that the air services are in place to meet that demand to support the tourism industry,” he added.

Figures released last week shows  a decline of more than 80 per cent in summer passenger volumes at YKA, though that was a slight improvement from the 97 per cent decline during the spring.

Ratuski says while there are no international flights from Kamloops, the city is still feeling the impact with a lack of those passengers due to COVID-19 as a large portion of summer and winter passenger volumes into Kamloops Airport are international travellers.