Photo: Wayne Moore - Castanet File Photo

Airport manager Sam Samaddar

Kelowna International Airport wants to take advantage of provincial funding for airport improvements.

The province is making $8 million available through the B.C. Air Access Program, announced last year. The program will provide $24 million for infrastructure upgrades over the next three years.

Airport manager Sam Samaddar said the airport has applied to the program.

"We have this whole development program underway at the airport. We've looked at portions of it to see if the province is willing to support some of it," said Samaddar.

"Within the whole terminal expansion, we have things like the departure room upgrades, the entire outbound baggage system upgrades. There are portions of that that could be wrapped up into individual programs."

Through the program, the province shares costs with public airports on projects such as lighting and navigational systems, terminal building expansion or upgrades, and runway improvements.

"This program is really focused on the smaller municipal airports that don't have access to a lot of capital money or don't have the ability to generate it on their own," acknowledged Samaddar who defended the airport's decision.

"It's a program that's out there. Eventually the government will decide who gets access to that money."

The deadline for applications is April 6.