Passengers continue to return to Kamloops Airport according to new data released today.

YKA Managing Director, Ed Ratuski, says there were 60,314 passengers processed in April, May, and June of this year, a 660 per cent increase from the 7,932 in the same three month period last year.

It takes the total on the year to 114,004 passengers after 53,690 passengers went through the airport terminal in the first three months of the year.

“The numbers show a significant increases over last year, but what we are normally looking at is our comparisons to our record year in 2019, before COVID,” he told NL News. “We are at about 73 per cent of the travel during that same period and we are at about 62 or 63 per cent of year to date numbers for 2019.”

Ratuski says the better than expected numbers could mean a return to pre-COVID passenger volumes at YKA sooner that the previous estimate of 2024.

“Once we get the winter schedules form the airlines, we’ll see if that recovery is going to help us get back to 2019 levels earlier than we planned, but we won’t know that probably for the next two or three months,” he said.

“[In making our projections,] we were trying to take into account what might happen with other variants and things like that and also with some uncertainly with airlines schedules and resources, but it has all kind of worked out well.

“I mean, WestJet has added Vancouver via WestJet link this summer and it is doing quite well,” Ratuski added. “Air Canada has added frequencies to Vancouver and Calgary and passengers are taking advantage of it.”

Passengers travelling into or out of Kamloops Airport are also being told to precautions to avoid delays because of disruptions at airports around the world.

“During this busy travel season, passengers are also reminded that much of the global airline industry continues to experience challenges with baggage handling and flight interruptions,” Ratuski added.

“Some tips to avoid disappointment include packing light and, if possible, travelling only with carry-on baggage, checking your flight status for schedule changes and monitoring flight connections times closely when booking to allow time for delays.”

He is also reminding people that while mask mandates have been lifted in a number of settings, federal guidelines still require masks to be worn during screening, boarding and on all commercial flights in Canada.