New data from Kamloops Airport shows that passenger numbers continue to increase with each passing quarter.

Airport Managing Director Ed Ratuski says there were 89,588 passengers between January and March, a 10.8 per cent increase from the 80,867 passengers during the same three month period last year.

Broken down further, there were 30,028 passengers in January,  30,079 in February, and 29,481 in March this year.

“It’s nice to see that we’re getting regularly back over the 30,000 passenger mark on a monthly basis. We haven’t seen that since before COVID,” Ratuski told Radio NL.

“We still have a ways to go but these numbers are quite encouraging for this early in the year.”

Ratuski says the majority of the passengers at Kamloops Airport so far this year were people heading to and from Sun Peaks Resort.

“We did see a lot of international travellers through the building again as well as a lot of local travellers heading on to sun destinations,” he said. “The business travel is picking up as well, but definitely this first quarter of the year is largely centered on the ski traffic.”

Kamloops Airport set a record with 361,586 passengers in 2019, before COVID-19 reared its ugly head, causing numbers to drop significantly in 2020 and 2021 because of restrictions on non-essential travel. It ended 2023 on a high, with 311,696 total passengers – about 50,000 passengers or 14 per cent shy of the 2019 record.

“We’re still just over about 86 per cent of where we were at the record levels, which is quite promising in terms of how we’re performing as compared to lot of other airports in the country, who are still in the 50 to 60 per cent range as they try to recover,” Ratuski said, noting Kamloops could set a new passenger record this year.

“We don’t have the number of flights we used to have but still the passenger loads are up there and the demand is there. We’re working closely with the airlines on a regular basis to increase the frequencies and provide more options, but we are quite happy with what we are seeing.”

He says Pacific Coastal, WestJet, and Air Canada are maintaining their flight schedules going into the summer, meaning Kamloops Airport could still set a new passenger record this year, if everything goes according to plan.

“We’re cautiously optimistic as we head into the summer because some of the airlines are still facing some challenges with crew availability resulting in a few less flights than we’re used to seeing,” Ratuski said. “We also getting ready for what’s looking to be a busy fire season.”

“Yes, the summer is usually quite a bit busier but I think that is just the way the industry is now with the climate. We just have to really keep a close eye on what happens because that could impact numbers as we move into the summer.”