Kelowna

Kelowna International Airport keeps raising the bar - and surpassing it.

YLW set yet another year-over-year passenger record in 2012.

More than 1.4 million passengers (1,440,952) went through the Kelowna terminal last year, an increase of 3.65 per cent over 2011.

The airport also broke all time records during 10 of the 12 months in 2012.

"We've seen strong and consistent passenger growth in 2012," says airport director, Sam Samaddar.

"Two new air carriers, two new destinations and more partnerships with our travel and business stakeholders have helped YLW reach of 1.4 million passengers."

The only months that did not break records in 2012 were May and December although Samaddar says those months were still very busy.

"August was the busiest month of the year with 131,101 passengers using YLW which was 5.8 per cent ahead of August 2011 and 3.17 per cent ahead of the previous record breaking August in 2011."

In April, Northwestern Air began twice-a-week service to Red Deer and, in December, United Airlines kicked off daily service to Los Angeles.

WestJet also offers weekly service to LAX from November to April.

Kelowna International now offers 64 daily non-stop commercial flights with Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, Central Mountain Air, Northwestern Air WestJet and United Airlines to nine different destinations.

Seasonal service is also offered to Las Vegas, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta and Cancun.