Along with Christmas and snow, winter brings skiers to Kamloops.
Particularly to Sun Peaks Resort.
Air Canada has noticed the trend, too, so the airline is adding two extra flights a day between Kamloops and Vancouver this winter.
Not only will the Jazz planes bring skiers in, they’ll also help sun-seekers connect out to warmer climes.
Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah said Wednesday there were six flights on last winter. This year it’s up to seven.
“This is to support demand, primarily for the ski season. We’ve timed our flights to ensure there would be convenient connections in Vancouver to our worldwide destinations,” she said.
“We do monitor all of our markets to make sure we’ve got the right number of flights to support the demand.”
All of the Jazz planes are turbo props, with either 50 or 37 seats.
“We are seeing demand coming in and because of international flights coming in to Vancouver, we want to make sure our flights connect conveniently.”
The sixth flight goes into effect Oct. 31, with the seventh landing Jan. 3, 2011. Air Canada will look at whether to pare back its schedule in April.
“That’s 350 seats a day departing for Vancouver,” said airport manager Fred Legace.
“We’ve never had seven flights a day.”
He suspected some of the skiers who couldn’t hit the slopes of Whistler last winter due to the 2010 Olympics found other B.C. mountains, such as Sun Peaks Resort, and they’re coming back for more.
Sun Peaks also gets a lot of traffic from Down Under, he said.
“I think Australia is now their No. 1 country for customers.”
He’s right, said Christopher Nicolson of Tourism Sun Peaks.
“They are our single largest overseas market,” he said.
“They love the genuine friendliness of the locals. That is something that is time in and time out, in surveys from Australia, is one of the most compelling reasons for them to come to Canada.”
He applauded the extra flights because it means more frequency, and that means shorter waits for connections for passengers arriving through Vancouver.
“It reduces travel time,” he said.
Sun Peaks is second to Whistler and in some cases ahead of Whistler as the leading ski resort in Canada, Nicolson said.
