Kelowna has the 8th most relaxing airport in the country

'Relaxing' and 'airport' are two words you rarely see in the same sentence.

That's because most people associate airports with stress, chaos, line-ups, delays and cancellations.

But, the time before you catch your plane can be calm, even enjoyable.

Canada Casino (the online casinos market you wouldn't expect to do this) did a survey to determine Canada's 10 most stress-free airports.

Kelowna International Airport ranked No. 8, behind Regina, Saskatoon, Fort McMurray, Moncton, Kitchener-Waterloo, London and Vancouver and ahead of Ottawa and Charlottetown.

See the full list below.

The survey came up with a relaxation score out of 10 to rank the 23 biggest airports in the country.

It was a complicated formula based on total number of annual passengers, a 3-day sample of scheduled and departed flights over a busy three day period July 25-27, number of runways, flights departing on time, number of restaurants and executive lounges, if the airport has a spa and if the airport is well served by buses and taxis.

The more restaurants the better for an airport's stress-free quotient because they provide extra seating and a place for people to relax and grab a bite to eat and a drink before boarding.

Kelowna airport was listed as having seven dining options -- two White Spots (one before security, one after), two Tim Hortons (one before and one after security), Subway (after security) and two Cruze fresh food vending machines (one before and one after security).

Counting Cruze is a bit of a stretch since vending machines don't provide a designated sit-down dining option.

Kelowna airport's 'spa' comes with a double asterisk ** beside it because it's a massage chair.

Kelowna airport is 14 kilometres from downtown, which is considered fairly close, and there are six options to get there that are less stressful than driving there yourself and organizing parking.

Those six ways are to have family or a friend drop you off, taxi, public bus, Uber, Uride or shuttle service.

Having a relatively short commute to the airport, having options and them being somewhat affordable all contributes to arriving at the airport in less of a frazzle.

As you'll see on the chart, Kelowna netted a relaxation score of 7.05 out of 10 and finished in eighth place based on 1,718,059 total passengers in 2002, a three day number of 146 departing flights, seven dining options, no executive lounges, that massage chair and six commute options.

There wasn't a lot of difference in the final scores from No. 1 Regina at 7.83 to No. 10 Charlottetown at 6.98.

The rankings also tend to favour smaller airports because they are less busy, therefore less stressful.

The two busiest airports in the country -- Toronto and Montreal -- didn't make the relaxing top 10.

However, three of the 10 most busy airports in Canada -- Vancouver at No. 3, Ottawa at No. 8 and Kelowna at No. 10 -- did make the top 10 list of the most relaxing.

Kelowna airport is served by 10 airlines (WestJet, Air Canada, Flair, Pacific Coastal, Lynx, Central Mountain Air, Air North, Alaska, Sunwing and Swoop) that fly non-stop to 18 destinations (Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Prince George, Seattle, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Kitchener, Toronto and Montreal and in the winter: Phoenix, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan.