Imagine breezing through the security screening line at the airport in double-quick time.
Imagine not having to dig out your little baggie of liquids and gels and haul out your laptop.
Well, that's exactly what's going to happen come the end of January at Kelowna International Airport.
"It's a whole new pre-board security screening system that will increase flow significantly," explained Phillip Elchitz, the airport's director of operations and innovation.
"It's a big deal for both the airport and passengers. Passengers will immediately have an improved experience."
Currently, Kelowna airport has four security lanes that screen passengers and all their carry-on gear.
The capacity of the old system is 120 passengers per lane per hour for a total of 480 passengers an hour if all four lanes are open.
The new so-called CATSA (Canadian Air Transport Security Authority) Plus system will also be four lanes -- with the option for a fifth.
The capacity of each lane, however, is a faster 200 passengers per hour, for a four-lane total of 800 passengers an hour.
This will be a game changer for the airport, especially during times when existing wait lines can stretch into the terminal building because hundreds of passengers have shown up all at once to catch flights on big planes to Toronto, Montreal, Mexico, Phoenix and Vegas.
The key with the updated CATSA Plus equipment is it has superpower screening abilities, so you don't have to take out your liquids and gels and laptop to go through security separately.
Simply leave your liquids and gels and laptop where they are in your carry-on suitcase or bag and the CATSA Plus equipment will deal with it.
Another feature that speeds up the line with CATSA Plus is three people at once in every lane can be putting their carry-on in bins that are automatically fed to them on a conveyor belt and then whisked away on another conveyor.
Currently, it's a manual bin system and barely more than one person at a time can be loading bins at each lane.
Kelowna is the first so-called Class II airport (essentially an airport smaller than Toronto Pearson, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa) to get CATSA Plus security screening equipment.
Kelowna is the 9th busiest airport in Canada handling over 2 million passengers a year who come and go on nine airlines that fly to 21 destinations non-stop.
The new CATSA Plus equipment arrived this week on big trucks.
The bulging white tubes that will make up part of the screening system look like little rockets or submarines or CAT scan machines.
The white tubes are now in the new attached building that's been constructed over the past year just west of the existing terminal.
There, they will be assembled into the new four lanes of faster and more-efficient security screening systems.
That west expansion and the new security screening lanes will open to the public at the end of January.
The area where the existing, slower security lanes are will be closed, decommissioned and turned into a washroom block that will open late next year.
The faster CATSA Plus security lanes and washrooms are part a $120-million expansion and improvements phase that also includes a twice-as-big departure lounge, much of it in that new building to the west of the terminal.
The new departure lounge will open at the same time the new CATSA Plus security screening area does -- the end of January.
From the departure lounge, the number of departure gates will remain at 10, however, gates 7, 8, 9 and 10 will be spread out in the expansion to offer passengers direct access from the gate onto the jetway on onto the plane.
"We're moving away from the airside corridor system we have now (that passengers walk down to find jetways or a door to outside to walk to the plane on the apron) to spread out the gates and have 10 parking places for planes."
The expansion and improvement phase also includes four new food and beverage options.
That starts mid-November with Ellison Field Taphouse -- a beer-inspired restaurant -- opening in the former White Spot space in the terminal before security.
After security, the White Spot in the departure lounge will still be there, as will the Subway and Bright Jenny coffee kiosk, andTim Hortons is expected to return (after disappearing during renovations).
By the end of 2026 the two additional new food and beverage concepts will open, one of them being a wine bar.
After 2026, phase two will start for 2030 completion.
That includes a new domestic arrivals area at the south end of the terminal that will be able to accept more arriving flights and passengers and quickly handle more baggage to go onto arrival carousels.
The existing arrivals area will be turned into the international arrival areas with customs for passengers coming in on flights from Phoenix, Las Vegas and Mexico.
