Fewer flights between Kamloops and Toronto this summer led to a modest drop in travellers at Kamloops Airport.

YKA Managing Director Ed Ratuski says there were 84,748 passengers between July and September, down from 86,610 in that period of 2018.

Fewer flights between Kamloops and Toronto this summer led to a modest drop in travellers at YKA.

“We had planned for a decrease in this quarter. However, we had seen a much larger increase in our Vancouver and Calgary market which counteracted that decrease,” Ratuski said. “So it was only about a 2 per cent, or about 1,500 to 2,000 passengers over that three month period.”

Ratuski told NL News last month that the once-weekly flight to Toronto – which ran 10 times in July and August – was used by 2,100 people.

For the first nine months of 2019, Ratuski says 269,974 passengers have come in and out of YKA, which is nearly a five per cent increase from this time in 2018. He says the airport is expecting 370,000 passengers by the end of this year, which would be nearly 20,000 more than the record set last year.

“We have 24 sun destinations that are one stop connections out of Kamloops, and about 90 different global connection, you can do with one stop directly out of Kamloops,” he added. “That’s what those numbers are showing is that passengers are starting to really take advantage of those connecting networks.”

Ratuski says beginning on October 27, Air Canada and WestJet will both  be flying larger planes more often to both Vancouver and to Calgary.