La La Land, El Lay, City of Angels, Tinseltown or Angeltown.
Whatever nickname you call Los Angeles, Kelowna is getting daily non-stop flights to the southern California megatropolis this winter.
It was recently confirmed that Alaska Airlines will return to Kelowna for a second consecutive winter to fly between the Okanagan's biggest city and LA, daily from Dec. 18, 2025 to March 18, 2026.
It's another coup for Kelowna International Airport and travellers from the Southern Interior of BC to have non-stop service to Los Angeles, which is an exciting tourist, cultural, entertainment and business destination in its own right as well as an important hub for connections to the rest of the US, including Hawaii, Mexico, Central and South America, the South Pacific and Asia.
It also takes the count of sun destinations you can get to non-stop from Kelowna to 7.
WestJet already announced flights to the other 6 this winter -- Cancun and Puerto Vallarta, starting Oct. 26, Phoenix and Las Vegas, starting. Oct. 30, Los Cabos, starting Oct. 31 and Mazatlan, starting Dec. 16.
Again, non-stops to 7 sun spots is a real coup for Kelowna airport and travellers from Kelowna and the surrounding area.
Other cities will bigger populations -- like Victoria, Regina, Saskatoon, Kitchener and London, Ontario -- don't have that many non-stops to sun destinations.
The return of the Kelowna-LA flights shows that despite the 'elbows up' so-called boycott of everything American because of the Trump-prompted trade war and 51st state rhetoric, there's still demand by Canadians to travel to the US.
A recent Angus Reid poll showed that of Canadians with plans to travel to the US, 26% have cancelled, changed or postponed their trip, yet 74% plan to continue to travel to the US.
Alaska, which also currently flies daily between Kelowna and Seattle, sees increasing demand on the route and will start a second daily flight on Jan. 7, 2026.
People from both Seattle and Los Angeles want to come to Kelowna to ski and have a winter vacation.
Tourists from the Southern Interior want to go to Seattle for Seahawks games, shopping and flight connections and to LA for a sunny holiday and flight connections.
Alaska's flight will leave LA at 8:27 am to arrive in Kelowna at 12:01 pm.
The same plane will turn around to depart Kelowna at 12:51 pm and land in LA at 4:05 pm.
Alaska will use a 76-seat Embraer 175 regional jet on the route.
The plane boasts no middle seats with a 2-2 configuration with two seats (an aisle one and a window one) either side of a single, central aisle.
The sun destination schedule is part of a boom at Kelowna airport.
This year, the eight airlines that serve Kelowna (WestJet, Air Canada, Pacific Coastal, Porter, Alaska, Flair, Air North and Central Mountain Air) added over 2,000 flights, a 16% bump.
Some of the frequency increases include:
- Porter will continue its daily flights between Kelowna and Toronto throughout the winter
- Pacific Coastal, which flies between Kelowna and Victoria, Nanaimo, Comox, Prince George and Cranbrook (starting Oct. 27), increased its capacity in and out of Kelowna by 32%
- Pacific Coastal is turning its daily service between Kelowna and Nanaimo into twice daily, also starting Oct. 27
- WestJet's Mexico program is 26% bigger with Cancun expanded to six flights weekly from five, Puerto Vallarta going to four times weekly from three and Los Cabos to twice weekly from weekly
- Alaska will double up flights between Kelowna and Seattle from daily to twice daily, starting Jan. 7, 2025
The most frequency from Kelowna airport is to Vancouver, with 99 flights weekly, Calgary with 66 and Edmonton at 27.
In all, 2.1 million passengers a year fly in and out of Kelowna airport on eight airlines to and from 21 non-stop destinations, making it the 9th busiest airport in Canada.
All this growth requires airport expansion.
And, Kelowna airport is undergoing the largest infrastructure expansion and renovation in its 78-year history, spending $422 million on a 60,000-square-foot project that will double the size of the departure lounge, enlarge the security screening area and capacity and add a Sutton Place Hotel and parkade right beside the terminal.
No taxpayer money will be used for the improvements.
The funds come from airport revenues and the airport improvement fee collected on every flight purchased by a passenger.
Thumbnail photos from Instagram and Venti Views on Unsplash
