Alaska Airlines trims Kelowna-Seattle route to winter only from year-round service – Okanagan | 24CA News
A significant American airline is paring down its flights to the Okanagan.
Global News has realized that Alaska Airlines can be trimming its Kelowna-to-Seattle path to seasonal service from common service.
Alaska Airlines, which has been flying into YLW since 1998, presents 4 to 5 flights per week to Seattle. But Kelowna International Airport director Sam Samaddar says direct journeys from the Okanagan to the Emerald City will now solely be accessible from mid-December to mid-April.
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“We got a little bit of wind of this (Thursday) and I was notified this afternoon,” Samaddar informed Global News on Friday. “We had a formal meeting with Alaska (Airlines), where we were advised of their plans.”
According to Samaddar, Alaska was suspending its summer time operations as a consequence of decreased route demand, together with restricted flight crews and plane.
He mentioned these crews and plane can be repositioned into different markets with larger yields.
In a press release to Global News, Alaska Airlines mentioned: “We made the decision to transition Kelowna, British Columbia, into a seasonal winter destination. We will no longer fly there year-round. Our flights to Kelowna will end in mid-April and resume in mid-December.”
Constantly touted as certainly one of North America’s finest airways, Alaska mentioned Canada has been slower to get well following the worldwide pandemic. The airline additionally flies into Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton and Calgary.
“Our load factors during the peak summer season to Kelowna were significantly lower than the rest of our system,” mentioned Alaska Airlines. “Flights to that region of B.C. remain very popular during the winter.”
Samaddar says the news reduces direct connectivity to different American airports or tropical locations.
“Having the network into Seattle certainly was very, very important to our customers in terms of getting into the U.S. in a fast and easy way,” he mentioned.
“This is going to certainly make it more difficult because you’re going to have to connect through another Canadian airport to then get south. We certainly will have our work cut out for us in terms of working with other airline partners to see if we can fill that void.”
Currently, Samaddar says YLW is at 85 per cent of total seat capability when in comparison with 2019. He says the airport could possibly be at 100 per cent within the second quarter of 2023.
“But you have these drawbacks that occur as well,” mentioned Samaddar, “where you have airlines pulling in and out of the market.”
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
