Know before you go; travelling to and from Kamloops

KAMLOOPS – Christmas is less than a week away meaning it’s peak travel season as many people are going home for the holidays, both by plane and car.

“Over the next few days up until Christmas Eve, we will probably be in the area of you know, a couple thousand passengers coming in and out of Kamloops airport every day for the next few days,” Ed Ratuski, manager of the Kamloops Airport told CFJC News.

Over the weekend, winter storms meant delays for travellers coming into and leaving Kamloops.

A number of flights from Vancouver were delayed due to heavy snowfall, some of which were planned to come to the Tournament Capital.

Heavy snow and fog created limited visibility for drivers going to and from the coast, and two separate collisions caused the closure of Coquihalla in both directions just south of Merritt for the majority of Sunday. A snowfall warning is still in effect for the Coquihalla between Merritt and Hope until at least Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s certainly very cold thanks to this extremely strong arctic ridge of high pressure over northern B.C.,” Bobby Sekhon, an Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist explained. “So certainly it creates a lot of cold air combined with some moisture that’s going into Washington State it’s going to give some snow to the Coquihalla as well and quite heavy with that.”

According to Environment Canada, the Tournament Capital is much colder than usual as we head into the holidays, with Monday’s high of minus 19 C was about 20 C below the average.

“We are getting close to record values of daily cold temperatures, we have seen obviously colder temperatures in the past but this is very well below average,” Sekhon said

Saturday and Sunday is expected to warm up a bit in time for Christmas, Ratuski said very cold temperatures could mean fewer delays.

“Generally this type of cold weather is really good for flying, so it’s when we get a lot of precipitation, wet snow which we don’t have right now,” he said. “That’s where we start to see some issues with visibility and deicing and things like that,”

The airport’s manager said travellers should do their part and plan ahead. “Because it is a peak season just really plan ahead, arrive maybe half hour, an hour earlier than you normally would before your flight,” Ratuski said. “Because all the flights right now this time of year are about 100 per cent full.”

Ratuski suggests early arrivals also you’re through security and ready for boarding. He said travellers should also be signing up for text alerts from their airline to stay up to date with delay times on their flights.