Hamilton International Airport

[Branden Simon]

This thread is for Hamilton International Airport on UT: This thread is for Pictures, videos, news articles, rumors, questions, or debates post it here.

Here is the Hamilton Airport Master plan update from Sept 2023

If you like airports in GTHA you can use the Toronto Pearson International Airport

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

Accessibility from the provincial highway network is critical to making YHM a viable alternative to YYZ

 

[innsertnamehere]

Accessibility from the provincial highway network is critical to making YHM a viable alternative to YYZ

The Province is upgrading Highway 6 to a full 100km/h freeway to connect the airport to the 403:

Highway 6 South Widening

hwy6southwideninghamilton.ca

so that's happening.

 

[mininamib]

I just booked a flight from Germany to Canada via the Icelandic airline Play, so I will be landing at Hamilton Airport. Needless to say I am so excited to experiment with both the airline and with the airport. I think it will be a funny experience getting off the trans-Atlantic flight and collecting my luggage and clearing customs in such short time. My worst experience flying this direction was in December 2022 when I was on the Pearson tarmac for 2 hours after landing and then waiting another 2.5 hours to collect my luggage. Granted, it was indirectly due to COVID-effects on the industry, but I am sure it will contrast greatly with such "express" service at tiny YHM.

Let's hope that this routing sticks around for a while. Perhaps other trans-Atlantic carriers will also choose YHM?

 

[KingJames]

That is great we have a thread on here for YHM, thanks for starting. May be the nail in the coffin for SSP. YHM has so much potential, hoping we get some real vision, leadership, and financial depth to raise it up. Would love to see them court JetBlue/Southwest to beef up the passenger side and make up for the loss of Swoop USA runs

 

[KingJames]

I just booked a flight from Germany to Canada via the Icelandic airline Play, so I will be landing at Hamilton Airport. Needless to say I am so excited to experiment with both the airline and with the airport. I think it will be a funny experience getting off the trans-Atlantic flight and collecting my luggage and clearing customs in such short time. My worst experience flying this direction was in December 2022 when I was on the Pearson tarmac for 2 hours after landing and then waiting another 2.5 hours to collect my luggage. Granted, it was indirectly due to COVID-effects on the industry, but I am sure it will contrast greatly with such "express" service at tiny YHM.

Let's hope that this routing sticks around for a while. Perhaps other trans-Atlantic carriers will also choose YHM?

Ryanair would be an amazing add. Hope they are paying attention to the success of Play via this better GTA option.

 

[rbt]

... I think it will be a funny experience getting off the trans-Atlantic flight and collecting my luggage and clearing customs in such short time. ...

That was my favourite feature of flying Porter. Clear customs, grab baggage, and walked home within 30 minutes of landing.

Then one day they had 4 flights from USA land within about 10 minutes of each-other and mine was last. 2 customs agents for 350 people; it took hours to clear. Small airports are usually over-staffed but it can really hurt when they're suddenly under-staffed.

 

[innsertnamehere]

That was my favourite feature of flying Porter. Clear customs, grab baggage, and walked home within 30 minutes of landing.

Then one day they had 4 flights from USA land within about 10 minutes of each-other and mine was last. 2 customs agents for 350 people; it took hours to clear. Small airports are usually over-staffed but it can really hurt when they're suddenly under-staffed.

I flew through Hamilton in December to Vegas and returning the customs line was quite long, unfortunately. Took almost an hour from what I recall, with a chunk of that waiting outside in a line on the tarmac in below freezing temps. At 2am. Small airports aren’t always fun.

The flight was a little over $100 round trip.. so it’s hard to complain though. I got a 3 day trip to the Grand Canyon for the cost of a weekend in Montreal, basically.

 

[Branden Simon]

Lynx Air ceased operations (Including Hamilton)

https://www.thespec.com/business/ha...cle_ada0cd84-04ec-5576-9418-cfa0152ac1c6.html

As Lynx Air prepares to shut down, the future of cheap flights out of Hamilton is once again up in the air.

Officials with the Calgary-based airline announced Thursday that it would be ceasing operations as of Monday as it filed for credit protection.

In a statement on its website, the airline said it was unable to overcome compounding financial pressures associated with inflation, fuel costs, exchange rates, cost of capital, regulatory costs and competition in the Canadian market.

The announcement comes less than two years after Lynx Air made its inaugural flight out of the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport back in June 2022.

Colleen Ryan, associate director of communications for the airport, told The Spectator in a statement that, while the closure of airline is “unfortunate and unexpected news” for the airport, Hamilton played a “only a small part” in their network. ... Marvin Ryder, an associate professor in business studies at McMaster University, said while the shutdown of Lynx is “sad news” for the airport, it’s an “easily survivable hit” when compared to the repercussions of a commercial tenant leaving the facility.

The Hamilton airport is one of Canada’s largest cargo airports, with more than 1.9 billion pounds of cargo aircraft facilitated in 2022, as previously reported by The Sachem. “The core of the business is commercial flights,” said Ryder, pointing to operators such as Purolator, Amazon and Cargojet. “If one of them said they were moving to another airport, I would be a lot more concerned.

 

[robmausser]

Lynx Air ceased operations (Including Hamilton)

https://www.thespec.com/business/ha...cle_ada0cd84-04ec-5576-9418-cfa0152ac1c6.html

As Lynx Air prepares to shut down, the future of cheap flights out of Hamilton is once again up in the air.

Officials with the Calgary-based airline announced Thursday that it would be ceasing operations as of Monday as it filed for credit protection.

In a statement on its website, the airline said it was unable to overcome compounding financial pressures associated with inflation, fuel costs, exchange rates, cost of capital, regulatory costs and competition in the Canadian market.

The announcement comes less than two years after Lynx Air made its inaugural flight out of the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport back in June 2022.

Colleen Ryan, associate director of communications for the airport, told The Spectator in a statement that, while the closure of airline is “unfortunate and unexpected news” for the airport, Hamilton played a “only a small part” in their network. ... Marvin Ryder, an associate professor in business studies at McMaster University, said while the shutdown of Lynx is “sad news” for the airport, it’s an “easily survivable hit” when compared to the repercussions of a commercial tenant leaving the facility.

The Hamilton airport is one of Canada’s largest cargo airports, with more than 1.9 billion pounds of cargo aircraft facilitated in 2022, as previously reported by The Sachem. “The core of the business is commercial flights,” said Ryder, pointing to operators such as Purolator, Amazon and Cargojet. “If one of them said they were moving to another airport, I would be a lot more concerned.

I wouldnt be surprised if Flair jumps up to take over Lynx's slots. However they are also on thin ice financially too, so they might not have the resources.

 

[KingJames]

As noted on SSP, YHM needs to court Southwest, Spirit, Jet Blue, and encourage the Canadian government to allow foreign competition on domestic routes (maybe even just to secondary airports). Would love to see Play take on a route map for Canada with YHM as hub.

 

[lenaitch]

The stated reason why Southwest doesn't fly to Canada is their booking system isn't set up to handle foreign currency. I would think if they felt there was enough business in it they would modify their system. Jetblue only flies into Vancouver. With our airport fees running from 35%-75% higher than the US according to Air Canada, operating a discount airline here is a bigger challenge and I would image any US discount carrier would want to see major traffic to make it worth while.

 

[KingJames]

I would like to think that Buffalo volumes would be a good indicator of potential. That airport still advertises in the YHM market about how convenient they are and they get carriers not available in Canada.

 

[lenaitch]

I would like to think that Buffalo volumes would be a good indicator of potential. That airport still advertises in the YHM market about how convenient they are and they get carriers not available in Canada.

Yet still the US discount carriers don't come. Maybe Buffalo or Niagara Falls NY is close enough for them.

 

[rbt]

Yet still the US discount carriers don't come. Maybe Buffalo or Niagara Falls NY is close enough for them.

There are a number of additional fees if they land in Canada (like NavCan and security) which don't appear if their customer drives to a USA airport. USA discount airlines would lose most of the price advantage over an Air Canada or WestJet basic economy price by landing in Hamilton.

Many fees are paid by the country, not take-off and landing. If you take-off in USA and land in USA you pay USA fees once. Cross border pay both USA fees and Canadian fees.

Toronto to Vancouver is also typically much cheaper than Toronto to Seattle for similar reasons. The fee price advantage leads to a large economies of scale advantage, like negotiating flat-fee landing costs in Vancouver but being charge the small-volume rate in Seattle, which is really hard to overcome.