Vernon Regional Airport (Image Credit: Liam Verster / Vernon Matters Staff)

By Liam Verster

Lease Agreements

Vernon looking to reframe lease structure for the regional airport

Feb 10, 2026 | 1:50 PM

The City of Vernon is looking at ways to make the Vernon Regional Airport more self-sustainable, while also keeping it available for other programs and uses.

The airport is owned and managed by the city, which leases out the structures on site to 35 general aviation and 19 commercial businesses. Through those leases the city generates a combined $195,000 annually. That total equates to an average lease rate of $0.45 per square foot, which was estimated to be about 56 per cent below the current market-supportable rate for comparable airports.

The city wants to move into a more self-sufficient model for the airport over a five-year period.

Before moving to the new rate structure, the city will hold a number of consultations with the lease-holders to establish a new framework for those deals. Input from those consultations will be brought back for further review and consideration before the change to the lease deals can be approved.

The goal is to generate more revenue through the leases, while also keeping space available for other uses such as Okanagan College programs, search and rescue operations, air ambulance/medevac services, and fire fighting aircraft operations.

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Vernon City Council approved having staff go ahead with the consultation process and drawing up a new rate structure for leasing properties at the airport.

“What happens with these things i people set long-term leases, and now a whole bunch are coming [to an end] at about the same time, and now it’s really important for us to have a conversation with those who are on those leases and get clear about the go-forward,” Mayor Victor Cumming told Vernon Matters following the regular council meeting Monday, Feb. 9.

“It will be no surprise to those who participate in those kind of buildings and airports, they know what’s happened tot he market, so not too big a surprise. [It’s] really important to sit down with them though and discuss where they see their needs are and where they see the advantage in the ongoing future leases.”