Boeing 787 Dreamliner lands in Kelowna, breaking record for airport

Dreamliner touches down

Photo: Torin Faubert

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner arriving in Kelowna on Saturday.

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Photo: Torin Faubert Photo: Torin Faubert Photo: Torin Faubert Photo: Torin Faubert Photo: Torin Faubert

A chartered Boeing 787 Dreamliner landed at Kelowna International Airport on Saturday morning, making history for the facility.

The aircraft is the largest-ever commerical passenger jet to touch down in Kelowna and has attracted significant interest from local aviation enthusiasts.

The jet has been chartered by Lordco Auto Parts and is taking almost 300 passengers to Kona, Hawaii.

Lordco declined to comment on the flight when contacted by Castanet, but the company is well-known to use travel for client appreciation purposes.

The Dreamliner landed at 10 a.m. and was scheduled to depart at 12:20 p.m. The jet flew in from Vancouver empty.

The aircraft is 40-feet wider and 25-feet longer than the previous largest commercial flight at YLW, a 767-300, which meant airport operations had to take some special precautions.

YLW briefly closed some taxiways so the plane could maneuver to the gate.

"We can certainly accommodate it safely and efficiently on our apron. We're excited to see it here. It'll be a feather in our [caps], it demonstrates we have the reach capability," YLW's senior manager of operations James Hall told Castanet in a previous interview.

"We've had large aircraft go to KF Aerospace before, we've had the 747, we've had the Antonov. We've had some large military planes, but this would be the largest commercial one coming to our terminal building," added Hall.

with files from Rob Gibson