British Columbia's second busiest airport YLW opens $108-million terminal building expansion

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“This terminal expansion is an important milestone for Kelowna and the Okanagan,” said Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas in a statement.

“YLW is a critical gateway that supports jobs, tourism, and economic growth, and this investment will help ensure we can continue welcoming more visitors and connecting our community to opportunities across Canada and beyond.”

From the get-go, the new security screening checkpoint will solely use Canadian Air Transport Security Authority’s (CATSA) next-generation security screening technology — the CATSA Plus Computed Tomography (CT) X-ray equipment.

CATSA Plus machines are increasingly being installed at the country’s airports, including at Vancouver International Airport. The technology allows passengers to keep liquids, gels, aerosols and large electronics inside their carry-on bags during screening, resulting in faster processing times and a smoother, less stressful experience for everyone involved.

YLW is now Canada’s first minor-class (Class II) airport to receive the full CATSA Plus deployment.

The terminal building expansion also brings new food and beverage options, including the pre-security Ellison Field Taphouse and Vintners Exchange in the departures area.

Improved wayfinding and upgraded digital displays, and a warm, inviting, contemporary interior design, featuring B.C. mass timber, are also highlights of the project, which is designed by Vancouver-based Office of Mcfarlane Biggar Architects & Designers.

“I am proud to celebrate the opening of our expanded terminal and will raise the travel experience for our valued passengers. But this opening is really just the beginning,” said Sam Samaddar, CEO of Kelowna International Airport.

Samaddar noted that over the next year, construction will continue within the older terminal building as 13,000 sq. ft. of space is renovated to add new amenities and improve passenger services.

As construction progresses, passengers can expect to see additional improvements, such as a new washroom concourse, a pet relief station, and new grab-and-go food and beverage options.

All of this work will conclude by late 2026, which will represent the conclusion of the $108-million, Phase 1 of YLW’s Airport Terminal Building Expansion project. Construction first began in 2023.

 

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Phase 2 is currently scheduled to begin construction in 2030 and will include another expansion of the terminal building. Preliminary plans call for relocating the domestic arrivals area and adding new, higher-capacity baggage carousels, while the existing arrivals space will be repurposed to create a larger international arrivals area and expanded facilities for the Canada Border Services Agency.

This future phase will also include an additional expansion of the departures lounge to further increase passenger capacity, along with relocated booths for rental car, shuttle, and tourism services.

The entire two-phase terminal building expansion project and other upgrades to airport infrastructure — including improvements to the airfield and other airside facilities — are estimated to carry a total cost of $422 million through 2033. The City of Kelowna owns and operates YLW, and this work is being funded entirely by airport revenues and Airport Improvement Fees.

In 2025, the airport also saw construction begin on Sutton Place Hotel Kelowna — a new six-storey luxury hotel with 245 guest rooms, with conference and meeting spaces and a full-service restaurant — and a seven-storey parkade with 1,000 vehicle parking stalls.

The new hotel and parkade — reaching completion in 2028 and 2027, respectively — will be located immediately west of the newly-built terminal building expansion, replacing a YLW surface vehicle parking lot just across the street.

In addition to YLW being B.C.’s second busiest airport — with Victoria International Airport trailing closely at third place, and Abbotsford International Airport at fourth place — Kelowna International Airport is also Canada’s ninth busiest airport, coming just behind Halifax Stanfield International Airport and ahead of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.

YLW saw 2.134 million passengers in 2024, which was an all-time annual record for the airport. The latest available statistics at the time of writing suggests a new all-time annual record will be made in 2025; over the first 11 months of 2025, YLW already recorded 2.095 million passengers. In early December 2025, YLW announced it was projecting more than 188,000 passengers over the holiday travel period from Dec. 17, 2025 to Jan. 6, 2026. YLW’s pre-pandemic annual passenger ridership record was 2.08 million in 2018.

YLW’s 2045 Airport Master Plan, finalized in 2016, projected the airport could see 2.25 million passengers by 2025 — a figure the airport is now poised to achieve and surpass, even after the earlier pandemic impacts. The master plan further projected that passenger volumes could further grow to between 2.85 million and 3.3 million by 2035 and between 3.5 million and 4.4 million by 2045. This is up from 1.73 million in 2016.

The master plan outlined how YLW will significantly expand through 2045 to better accommodate its growth, with the current projects through 2033 representing some of the initial works outlined in that strategy. By 2045, this includes runway, taxiway, and apron extensions, further expansions of the terminal building, growing to 16 gates through a combination of jet bridge gates and remote stands (up from the current 10 gates), various new airside and commercial developments, improved ground transportation infrastructure, and future significant land acquisitions on the east side of the runway.

2016 condition of YLW Airport:

Future 2045 master plan condition of YLW Airport:

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