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YLW's New Link to San Francisco to Boost Kelowna Growth

Getting down to San Francisco just became a whole lot easier for Okanagan residents.

Kelowna International Airport (YLW) just became the seventh Canadian destination and the 84th North American destination for San Francisco's International Airport (SFO).

The San Francisco Airport, otherwise known as the “gateway to the Pacific” is the seventh largest airport in the United States and one of the top 30 busiest airports in the world. On Saturday, United Airlines began their daily, year-round non-stop United Express Service between SFO and YLW.

“San Francisco is a great destination,” says Airport Director Sam Samaddar. “It provides travellers’ better connection points to many more U.S. cities. As well, the San Francisco Bay area is a great region to visit.”

On site were both Tourism Kelowna and Big White to welcome the inaugural flight. Of those on board the 50-seat aircraft, five were travel writers from the Bay area who were ready for a familiarization tour of Kelowna.

“Generating travel articles and blog posts allows us to showcase Kelowna and the Okanagan to many thousands of readers,” explains Tourism Kelowna CEO Nancy Cameron. “We know that readers in the Bay Area will be very intrigued by our beautiful destination and will want to jump on the United flight so they can explore for themselves.”

There were also two travel directors from the Bay Area Snow Sport Council who toured Kelowna and Big White. They are to report back to more than 30 ski clubs in the San Francisco area about the Okanagan's possibilities for a ski holiday. This market may provide a significant boost for the local ski hills, as the Bay Area clubs can now travel to the Okanagan with one short flight for one of their several ski trips each winter.

(Photo Credit: Twitter)

Katie Balkwill, the Regional Sales Manage for Big White, said that they have “already secured a group of 60 skiers from a Bay Area Ski Club on the new United Flight. They really like the idea of skiing our Champagne Powder and taking in the fantastic wine offerings our region has. They have already planned to take a day off skiing to enjoy a guided Kelowna wine tour during their stay.”

The new daily service by United is also expected to boost the growing technology industry in the Okanagan. “Despite all the technology that connects us to other markets, we still depend on air travel for some of our most important meetings,” says Andrew Greer, Program Manager at Accelerate Okanagan.

“We anticipate that daily flights to SFO will continue to help grow the Okanagan technology community, which is already about $1B industry. Within a year of Victoria starting daily flights to SFO, their venture capital investment grew about 200 per cent. We could see growth like that here in the Okanagan.”

The non-stop United Express flights between Kelowna and San Francisco can be booked online.



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