Airport Advisory Committee

Minutes

Meeting #:

Date:

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Time:

9:00 A.m. - 12:00 P.m.

Location:

Airport Administration Boardroom

Kelowna International Airport

1-5533 Airport Way

Kelowna, BC

Members Present

• Councillor Luke Stack, City of Kelowna
• Andre Blanleil, Kelowna City at Large
• Mayor Akbal Mund, City of Vernon
• Mayor James Baker, District of Lake Country
• Corie Griffiths, Economic Development Commission

Staff Present

• Legislative Coordinator (Confidential), Arlene McClelland
• Airport Director, Sam Samaddar, City of Kelowna
• Airport Development Manager, Phillip Elchitz, City of Kelowna
• Airport Finance & Corporate Services Manager, Shayne Dyrdal, City of Kelowna
• Senior Airport Development Manager, Ed Stephens
• Legislative Coordinator (Confidential)

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1.

Call to Order, Welcome and Introductions - Chair, Mayor Tom Dyas

The Chair called the meeting to order at 9:07 a.m.

 

Thanked everyone for coming.

 

Roundtable introductions and reminder of the tour.

 

3.

Reports

3.1

Opening Remarks - Sam Sammadar, Airport Chief Executive Officer

Airport Director provided introcductions.

Provided a history of the airport and facilities needing to be developed.

Reached the 2M mark for passengers in 2023.

Spoke to travelling to Saudia Arabia and Saskatchewan.

Spoke to international travel and recently visiting Saudia Arabia and launching their own airline recently with over $30B in investment.

Facial recognition will be used for checking in and make it more seamless for the traveller via biometrics instead of producing documents to various authorities.

Neom, the new city being developed was highlighted.

Spoke to the lack of a national strategy in Canada.

Spoke to travels to Regina and Foods company CAO interactions and discussions regarding supply chain.

Spoke to targets being set that need to be achieved with greenhouse gas emissions and achieving net zero.

Spoke to airfare costs in Canada and a user pay model.

Spoke to airport fees and YLW being one of the lowest cost airports in Canada even with the impacts of inflation and recovering from the pandemic.

3.2

Operational Review - Phillip Elchitz, Director, Operations & Innovation

2.17 M passengers being forcasted this year and is strong passenger growth.

Compared from 2015 to 2024 Passenger statistics.

Aircraft Movements in total are down 6% compared to YTD in 2023. 

Operations and Innovation

Reviewed the new aircraft approach to allow the runway to be optimized.

Spoke to the Official Community Plan and the protection of building heights and noise contours around the airport. Ongoing integration is required to protect the airport and at the same time allow more density and growth.

Aircraft gate optimization and check-in counter optimization were reviewed.

Pre-board screening was reviewed to maximize and optimize efficiency of the existing facility.

Baggage Belt Optimization was reviewed

ReserTrac - Ground transportation virtual cueing was reviewed to make taxi movements more effective via a virtual cuing system

Gate Turn technology was reviewed to increase the efficiency of each airplane so aircrafts can be turned quicker and allow more airplanes

Automated runaway reporting to optimize automated runway capacity and reallocate resources to other areas.

CUSS Common Use Upgrades to enhance passenger experience and reduce travel anxiety is expected to be awarded to supplier in the third quarter of 2024.

Spoke to purchase of new aircraft rescue firefighting truck.

Responded to questions from the Committee.

Spoke to the launch being close for Uber at the airport.

3.3

Commercial, Capital Projects & Air Service Overview - Geoff Ritchie, Director, Commercial & Air Service

Spoke to YLW project and their investment at various stages. Significant amount of activity currently in progress at the airport.

Childcare facility is fully open and full. Third airport in North America to have an onsite childcare facility.

Spoke to Airfield Lighting Control System upgrades.

Spoke to airfield lighting replacement with high intensity and the most advanced systems available.

Spoke to the combined operations building, the air terminal building expansion, air terminal expansion, airside pavement rehabilitation, airport development lots, Hyatt Hotel, Velocity Truck Centre, YLW Hotel (Kelowna's first five star hotel), YLW parkade and parking lot reconfiguration.

Responded to questions from the Committee.

Spoke to the planning cycles of airlines. Overall seat capacity is lagging demand with room for growth being demand driven.

Spoke to the transborder market and the ongoing reluctance of U.S. airlines coming north.

Provide a YLW air service overview for 2024 YTD. Carriers have enough staff to meet operations currently. Available aircraft is a restriction in the system currently.

Updates provided for Air Canada, West Jet and Alaska service.

3.4

Financial Overview - Shayne Dyrdal, Director, Finance & Corporate Services

Spoke to the Statement of Financial Position, 2023 with key theme being recovery.

Spoke to the Statement of Operations and Accumulated Surplus, 2023 highlighting the AIF uses.

Responded to questions from the Committee.

• Moved by Councillor M /Seconded by Kraft

  THAT the AAC receive for information from the Kelowna Inteernational Airport, presented on May 29th, 2024.

   

  
  
  
  Carried

4.

Questions & Wrap Up

5.

Termination of Meeting

The Chair declared the meeting terminated at 10:38 a.m.

6.

Tour - Airport Campus Tour - Geoff Ritchie

TOur of the airport and see what all the construction is looking like.