They had the official ground breaking Thursday even though construction has been going on for a month.

DHL Express building $100-million facility at airport

Expansion quadruples the company’s space to 200,000 square feet.

29 Nov 2019 05:30 AM by John Rennison The Hamilton Spectator

DHL Express is planning to have the shell for its new $100-million facility operational in time for next year's yuletide rush.

The building at John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport, next door to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, will quadruple the company's space to 200,000 square feet. The company is expecting to add 200 people to the current complement of 375 within five years of the facility being completed in March of 2021.

On Thursday, officials from the airport and DHL stood beneath the wing of a Cargojet 767-300 turning earth for a groundbreaking in the warmth of a Cargojet hangar.

Cargojet operates planes for the logistics company currently landing two planes a day, three in the Christmas season. The company's projections call for five planes a day landing loaded with packages within 20 years of the new facility's completion.

Andrew Williams, CEP of DHL Express Canada, said 24-hour landing ability and the Canada Border Services Agency at the airport — along with the ability to expand in the future — helped influence the company's decision.

The company has seen the number of packages shipped to Canada double since 2014 with 60 per cent travelling through Hamilton.

jrennison@thespec.com

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1b194a67_z.jpgDHL Hamilton Airport YHM new 2019 by R L, on Flickr

Air Transat signs on with KF Aerospace

KF Press Release

KF welcomes its newest customer, Air Transat, to its maintenance, repair and overhaul operations in Hamilton, Ontario.

December 4, 2019—Hamilton—KF Aerospace is pleased to announce they have signed a contract with Canada’s third largest airline, Air Transat. KF will be providing heavy maintenance and modifications on the Montreal-based airline’s fleet of aircraft, including the A321, B737NG, and A330 widebody.

KF has already invested in the staffing and tooling capability at its YHM Hamilton base to support the unique needs of the A321, the A330 will follow in 2020. The first aircraft was inducted for service at KF earlier this fall, and in November they were the first customer into KF’s newly expanded facility.

“We’re excited to welcome Air Transat on board our legacy of cross-Canada maintenance and repair services,” says KF President, Tracy Medve. “Supported by our robust operational growth at YHM, we’re committed to providing each of our customers with the highest calibre of service in the industry.”

Named World’s Best Leisure Airline in 2019 by Skytrax, Air Transat provides service to 65 destinations around the globe. KF thanks the Hamilton International Airport for its support of the project and the domestic and global connectivity it brings to the Greater Hamilton Area.

Swoop Summer 2020

Winnipeg - 10 weekly flights (2x daily Mon-Wed,Sun; 1x daily Thur-Sat)
Edmonton - 12 weekly flights (2x daily Mon-Fri,Sun)
Abbotsford - 14 weekly (2x daily Mon-Sun)
Halifax - 13x weekly (2x daily Mon-Fri,Sun; 1x daily Sat)

Orlando - 1x weekly (Sat)
Ft. Lauderdale - 1x weekly (Sat)
Las Vegas - 4x weekly (Tue,Thur,Fri,Sun)
Cancun - 1x weekly (Sat)
Montego Bay - 1x Weekly (Sat)

Total Weekly Flights: 57 (Domestic: 47 | International: 10)

Is this the same as last year?

^ when will Hamilton get decent passenger service?

Increase frequency on all domestic routes (mainly Halifax and Winnipeg)
Decrease frequency to Orlando (3 weekly last summer) and Ft. Lauderdale (2 weekly last summer)

Vegas (4 weekly), Montego Bay (1 weekly), and Cancun (1 weekly) remain the same.

I believe it’s a slight increase over last summers schedule.

Only Swoop and Westjet are currently scheduled for next summer out of YHM.

To where?

3 New Swoop Routes Rumoured

These new routes will kick off next summer!

ST. JOHNS, NL - Daily
CHARLOTTETOWN - 3x weekly (1x weekly in October)
MONCTON - 4x weekly (3x weekly in October)

Swoop is getting it's 10th plane sometime in the new year. It will be based in Hamilton and be their 5th plane based out of YHM. I suspect they will be announcing new routes when they confirm the transfer of the plane from Westjet.

Newmarket family kicked off plane after daughter threw up before takeoff

https://www.cp24.com/news/newmarket-...eoff-1.4751949

I would want them kicked off. Don't want to catch whatever the kid has.

I fly all the time. Passengers are constantly barfing or doing all sorts of ridiculous things: trying to open the emergency exit; asking to get off the plane as it taxis down the runway; harassing flight attendants, etc.

Passengers should only be asked to leave the plane if they are clearly a threat, in some way, to other passengers and if the flight crew decides they're ill-prepared to manage the situation.

Vomiting? I don't remember the last time I flew where someone didn't barf. That flight crew needs re-training. So does everyone in every airport I travel through, actually! :runaway:

It's not that uncommon to remove passengers who show symptoms of illness prior to takeoff. Whether this family should have been bounced, I couldn't say.

I'm sure you're right and I couldn't care less either way, actually. The issue for me is customer service - have a clear procedure in place: explain the situation to the passenger; have someone escort them back to the terminal; have a doctor or nurse evaluate the sick party; contact the airline on their behalf to organise their next flight, etc.

All of those things would have likely happened had they been flying Business or First, of course...

John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport’s runways get a lot of use
President and CEO says runway will be expanded ‘when the business requires it’

https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9...-a-lot-of-use/

Between moving cargo and passengers, the two runways at John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Mount Hope get a lot of use.

"We're on a growth trajectory," said Cathie Puckering, the airport's president and CEO.

In 2016, there were 333,368 passengers flying out of the airport — and by 2018, that number was well more than doubled at 725,630.

Not only that, but "over the past three years, we've seen a 20 per cent growth in our movement (of cargo)," Puckering said.

One of the biggest reasons for growth is that the airport doesn't have any curfew restrictions, meaning that planes can fly day and night, which Puckering said "is great for us, because a business wants to utilize its asset 24-7."

Of course, that means the planes have to keep moving.

"Minutes matter," Puckering said, adding that the planes are only making money for the cargo companies or airlines when they're actually flying, which is why a quick turnaround is so important.

A big part of that is having the infrastructure in place.

The airport has two runways; one is 1.8 kilometres long, and the other is three kilometres.

The shorter one had some work done in 2019.

Abu Sanneh, manager of airport planning and regulatory affairs, co-ordinated the project.

"The entire asphalt was taken up. We upgraded some of the lights, and have built a runway-end safety area," he said, explaining that this is to slow planes down if there was ever an emergency.

"It's part of improving the safety of the airfield as regulated," Sanneh said.

There are some government-mandated improvements that must be completed on all airport runways by 2022.

Locally, the longer runway will be completely redone this year, and the shorter one is slated for 2021.

Mount Hope is already a bit ahead of the curve with some of its systems. It's not uncommon for planes to be diverted to it from other airports when there's bad weather conditions, like fog.

That's because "we have an instrument landing system," Sanneh said. The system is specialized equipment on the ground that "talks" to equipment on the planes, making pilots "able to land the plane when they can't see."

He added that there are many different reasons why the planes might use the longer or shorter runways, including the size of the plane and their destination.

Puckering said, "the city would love for us to expand (the shorter) runway."

However, at the moment, "It can accommodate all the aircraft we have in Hamilton," and until they're certain they could recuperate the costs, it's a project for another day.

"Investing in a runway extension is an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars. It's something that would be done at a time when the business requires it," Puckering said.

Swoop 2020 New Summer Destinations from Hamilton (YHM)

• YHM to St. John’s (YYT) – Daily Starting 22 June
• YHM to Moncton (YQM) – 4x a week Mo, We, Fr, Su Starting 24 June
• YHM to Charlottetown (YYG) – 3x a week - Tu, Th, Sa Starting 27 June

That makes 85 flights per week from YHM

Schedule

St. John’s
Dep YHM 8:00 AM Arr YYT 12:18 PM / Dep YYT 1:05 PM Arr YHM 3:04 PM

Moncton
Dep YHM 4:00 PM Arr YQM 6:51 PM / Dep YQM 7:40 PM Arr YHM 8:50 PM

Charlottetown
Dep YHM 3:50 PM Arr YYG 6:46 PM / Dep YYG 7:35 PM Arr YHM 8:52 PM

Will these Swoop flights be replacing Westjet’s YYZ-YYG, or are these in addition to them?

Basically 2 different airlines even though they have the same parent.

YYZ-YYG are twice daily during the summer and Westjet starts at more than double the cost of Swoop. So to answer the question it is in addition to.

As Pearson reaches capacity, what can be done to Hamilton's airport to provide a relief? Which level of government needs to step up to make it happen?

I would say first and foremost, the city of Hamilton owns the airport as far as I can tell, and Tradeport has a 40 year lease to operate it, so they would have to be the lead on it. But I would imagine they would have to seek federal aid, as any kind of idea of relieving congestion at Pearson would involve a pretty significant terminal being built, as well as large apron space.

Assuming of course that a western GTA airport is deemed to be the ideal secondary airport for Toronto, rather than the long talked about Pickering airport.