Air passenger traffic at Kamloops Airport has been steadily taking off over the past six months, according to new data released Wednesday.
YKA Managing Director, Ed Ratuski, says there were 76,673 passengers processed in October, November, and December 2022. It was the busiest three month period at the airport since the final three months of 2019, beating the 67,327 passengers seen in July, August, and September of last year.
There were 24,835 passengers in October, 25,770 in November, and 26,068 in December, a 31.1 per cent increase when compared to the 58,490 in the same three month period in 2021.
“There were quite a few more business travellers and resource workers than we were seeing during the pandemic and then more leisure travellers as well heading to various sun destinations and other places,” Ratuski said. “I think it was a combination of everything as well as the lifting of all of the restrictions in terms of travel.”
“The slight drop in December traffic is a direct result of those wide-spread travel disruptions and cancellations due to weather as well as issues with crew availability in the days leading up to Christmas.”
All told, there were 257,374 passengers processed in 2022 – more than double the 104,385 seen in 2021, a 146.6 per cent year-over-year increase.
“We were only forecasting about 200,000 passengers and then Omicron hit right at the beginning of the year which was devastating for us, but we ended up, starting in July and August, where the numbers shot right back up to 80-85 per cent of where we were pre-COVID,” Ratuski added, on NL Newsday.
While encouraging, he notes the numbers are still some ways off the record 361,586 passengers seen in 2019, with passenger growth now expected to surpass pre-pandemic levels in early 2024.
“In terms of pandemic recovery, Kamloops Airport served 83.7 per cent of our record-setting 2019 Q4 pre-pandemic traffic, continuing the strong growth trends first experienced in the third quarter of 2021,” Ratuski said.
“Although challenges stemming from the pandemic remain for the aviation and tourism sectors, passenger growth is currently forecast to surpass pre-pandemic levels in early 2024 .
