Porter Airlines will get a big, watery welcome when it lands for the first time Wednesday in Kelowna

It's called a water cannon salute.

And it's a tradition in the aviation industry to give such a wet greeting to a plane or an airline taking off or landing for the first time at a particular airport.

Wednesday morning it will be Porter Airlines' turn when it lands for the first time at Kelowna International Airport.

The salute features the airport's fire trucks shooting arcs of water over the plane after it lands and approaches the terminal.

Porter's arrival tomorrow marks the start of year-round flights between Kelowna and Toronto.

It will begin at five times a week and ramp up to daily on June 23.

Porter flight #321 is scheduled to land at 10:55 am and receive its water cannon salute shortly after.

Once at the terminal and the first arriving passengers get off, local media will have a chance to check out the new 132-seat Embraer E195-E2 jet, outside and inside.

Porter touts 'no middle seats' on its jets because the aircraft has a two seats either side of the aisle.

The middle seat is the dreaded seat in many jets with a 3-and-3 configuration because you're pinned between two other passengers with less room and sharing armrests.

Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas, Porter Airlines vice-president Andrew Pierce and Kelowna airport CEO Sam Samaddar will also speak to the significance of the Kelowna-Toronto service for the travelling public and economic development.

The plane will then turn around and Porter flight #322 is schedule to depart Kelowna at 1:40 pm for Toronto.

It's quite a coup for Kelowna to attract Porter.

Porter has operated for years out of downtown Toronto's Billy Bishop Airport with short-haul flights using 78-seat Q400 turboprop planes to 20 destinations in Ontario, Quebec, the Maritimes, Newark (New York), Boston and Washington-Dulles.

Porter expanded to offer longer-haul flights with Embraer jets when it started to fly in and out of the major international hub Pearson Toronto.

Kelowna is part of the route network extension into Western Canada with service from Toronto to Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria.

Some of those cities also have Porter flights to Ottawa and Montreal.

So, you never know if Kelowna one day might also get Porter flights to Ottawa and-or Montreal.

With Porter joining the Kelowna airport family, Kelowna will have up to four flights a day to Toronto with Air Canada flying it twice daily and WestJet daily.

It's not only awesome to be able to fly non-stop four-and-a-half hours to Toronto, but it also opens up a whole world of connections to other destinations.

In all, Kelowna has up to 70 non-stops a day to 21 destinations (including hotspots in Mexico in the winter) with eight airlines.

A regional hub serving the entire Southern Interior, Kelowna airport served a record number of passengers in 2024 -- just over 2.1 million -- making it the 9th busiest airport in Canada.