it is true though - Hamilton airport looks like a hospital cafeteria.
That pic of the Thunder Bay airport at least looks like a small version of a real airport.
YHM needs to add a second floor or blow off the roof and raise it by 10 or 15 feet and get something other than the tubes of florescant lighting like a call centre office area.
The pics of new areas and eateries look great...hopefully they'll keep renovating the place.

those ambassadors would be more effective if they were younger and sexier. just my opinion. perhaps they ought to open up a hooters at the airport. it wouldn't affect the number of passengers but there would be a lot more people hangin' around up there. :haha:

YHM's so-called "ugly" terminal came courtesy of a Liberal federal government who tossed John Munro some money as a favor for his loyalty--and invested those dollars in an airport that was built to fail. It was in a corn field with meagre highway access, short runways amidst an era of airline regulation that prevented tangible growth. I have nothing at all against Thunder Bay--but really, it's apples and oranges. Thunder Bay is isolated--far away from competing airports--and really in a position where air travel is the only viable way in and out of town for most travellers.

Hamilton's sucesses, the reason I celebrate a revamped screening area or a new Tim Hortons, is because they are hard-fought, hard-won sucesses--by sweat equity and in spite of all the obstacles that have held back the airport for so long. The terminal might have a low ceiling or "hospital cafeteria" ambience--but you know, that's no excuse at all for still using YYZ while complaining about lack of service at YHM. Nice looking airports are great--but the utilitarian models work just as well.

It wasn't long ago there was a single airline and nothing but silence in that terminal--hell, at one point, even the single restaurant closed up. Y'all might not like the ceiling or the sexiness of the ambassadors--but I'm thrilled--I've wanted that place to thrive for so long--it's wonderful to finally see it happen.

Wow I love seeing these pics of the Terminal. I know I will be there welcoming Flyglobespan to Hamilton on May 1st its already booked off.

The 24-06 will probably be expanded to 10,000 ft. If you go to flyhi.ca and look at the Master Plan that is near the bottom on the left you can see some of the details the they want to see for the future.

As far as DC-10s coming the YHM it has already happened with Cargo, Arrow air brought one in. 747s have been in as well an AN-124s.

If Flyglobespan ever actually does some sort of Advertising they will do well other wise they may struggle unless they have high loads from the UK which they have said this is the case.

As far as loads in general I sometimes wonder if the Arrogance of people outside of the Hammer regarding the view of the city as a whole is the same reason people chose to drive past Hamilton airport to get to Pearson. I sometimes get frustrated when I talk to people even in Hamilton who tell me they drove to Pearson to Catch a Westjet flight to Calgary. It drives me bonkers.

I was doing a co-op with Westjet dring there busiest time here in Hamilton and they had great loads on just about every flight from Hamilton. Too Bad the GTAA gave them a nice deal to lure them away but thats a differant topic for a differant day.

One last thing. I think that Hamilton should change the airport to the Hamilton-Niagara International Airport. With so many people going to Niagara Falls every year this should be something to focus on.


Anyway Long live the Hammer and YHM

p.s. I like this thread as I know alot more about the Airport then Downtown.

I do like this video produced by Hamilton International Airport.

http://www.flyhi.ca/about/v-cargo.shtml

The Original Plans for the Hamilton International Airport Terminal Expansion

I have found some of the plans for the original airport expantion. I am still looking for the floor plans.

Legend

Orange – New phase work

Blue – Completed

Green – Original Terminal still standing

Purple – Demolition


Phase 1 - 2001 to 2002

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/8519/phase1wi2.jpg

Phase 2 - Spring 2003 to Spring 2004

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/8469/phase2vx7.jpg

Phase 3 - Spring 2004 to Spring 2005

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/7491/phase3un8.jpg

Phase 4 - Spring 2005 to Spring 2006

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/981/phase4pd3.jpg

Site Plan

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/5936/sitezz6.jpg

You can see in phase 4 the original terminal is the small orange part. It is small compared to the new terminal.
Some parts where completed out of order. They did do all of the parking lot. At the time they released the plans, they where trying to decide whether or not to building a parking garage.

:(

And how the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport is sold in the UK.

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/9...rontoadga4.jpg

Thanx! Now we can sort of get an idea of what the airport might look in the future.

Phase 1 is already done right? Did they demolition that hanger to the west?

Think we'll ever see Phase 2 within this decade?

Now which runway does the airport want to expand? Looking at the site plan I see two runways labeled 12 to 30 and another labeled 90 to 24. Which of those runways will eventually get expanded?

:)

Looks ambitious. :) Any renderings of the terminals?

I'm not sure what the "official" status is of that redevelopment plan, but you'll recall that the major engineering/consultantcy company ARUP designed that terminal expansion--I imagine that cost TradePort some coin--so I'd anticipate that terminal design/plan surviving.

Depending on the airport's traffic in the next couple of years that ball could get rolling again--perhaps with bickering over additional land for surface parking they could look at a parking deck and a split-level roadway system to serve the terminal.

Here is a more recent Master Plan.

Its a fairly large PDF Flight but pretty nteresting to read.

http://www.flyhi.ca/pdf/amp_update.pdf

Pretty sure there was an article about 2 weeks ago saying Tradeport bought a piece of land across from Airport Road for more surface parking. So I guess a parking structure is out of the question for now.

--------------------------------------------------------

Councillor balks at TradePort's parking proposal

By Stories by Steve Buist
The Hamilton Spectator
(Feb 20, 2007)

A numbered company owned by the same people who operate Hamilton's airport has bought a chunk of land for more than $3.4 million to build a parking lot across the road from John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport.

The property of approximately 25 hectares was purchased on Dec. 14 by 2113522 Ontario Inc., which has the same ownership structure in the same proportions as TradePort International Corporation, which operates the airport under a 40-year lease with the city.

Richard Koroscil, president and CEO of both TradePort and 2113522 Ontario Inc., said the land purchase was funded by the numbered company's shareholders and not from TradePort International.

Koroscil said the numbered company was created because there could have been a potential conflict if TradePort owned the newly acquired land, which isn't within the airport boundary.

TradePort had asked the city to purchase the parcel last year and add it to the airport so that TradePort could develop more parking.

"(The city) had decided that they didn't want to do that at the time," said Koroscil.

"Our concern was that we didn't have a lot of time because of the expansion that was taking place in terms of our business," he added, "so rather than getting caught down the road without having the facilities to expand the parking facility, we moved ahead and purchased it."

TradePort is still hopeful that the city will consider buying the land from the numbered company.

Ward 5 Councillor Chad Collins, a vocal critic of the airport lease, said such a deal "makes no sense financially." Hamilton owns the airport and the land it sits on while TradePort's role is to operate the airport, which includes collecting landing fees, passenger fees and rent from tenants.

TradePort is responsible for developing business at the airport, including the parking lot that already exists, as well as the cost of capital improvements. Anything that gets built on Hamilton's land becomes the city's property when the lease runs out.

The lease with TradePort stipulates that the city is only responsible for purchasing land that would be directly needed for a runway expansion.

"My direction right now is to purchase land for the extension of the runway and that's all I've gotten direction to do," said Guy Paparella, the city's director of airport development. "If (Koroscil) approaches us, obviously we have to consider it and put it in front of council and see what they think."

I'm getting confused with all these runways news. I know right now the City is paying $10 million for land acquisitions (Hamilton International Airport Land Acquisitions) around the airport, which will expand runways and taxi ways.

But now there's $4.6 million for another runway expansion? Huh?

I really hope Phase 2 of the airport happens soon. It would give the airport a better appearance and make it more modern.

Im pretty sure its for the same runway but there were someproblem with the land purchase the city only want to pay for the Land for the Runway but Tradeport also wants to put a bigger fuel farm as well as a flight kitchen on some of the same land so the City doesn't want to pay for the land for that as well, only for the Runway. Another problem is that the developers are wanting more money then the land has been appraised at.


As far as the terminal goes the only way we will see continued growth is if we continue to see passenger numbers go up and Flyglobespan sticks around for good. I think this would have to even include for the winter.

I know without a doubt that if the terminal was built into something more modern the number would probably go up even more then they would realise. We have even seen it somewhat proved on the fourm that the looks of the terminal play a larg part in whether or not people will use it.

Anyway there is a lot banking on Flyglobespan sucess.

Good to hear that Hamilton's airport is growing and starting to prosper, I think there is a lot of opportunities for them to continue growing it there.

Maybe we will see more activity and money spent around the airport. I cannot see them spending all that money and not doing something with the airport.

:tup:

Would you happen to know how much Tony Battaglia got for selling his shares?

I wouldn't be surprised within a few weeks Tony really starts the renovation of the Royal Connaught with that money.

Maybe this will change TradePort's access to equity, which has been apparently miserable--most of the improvements they've made have been supported by operations, as opposed to long-term liabilities. Perhaps YVR can more easily go out and borrow a chunk of change to make some major improvements.

I hope so they should have more access to funds. Im actually kind of suprised that The City didn't try and stop this from happening.