Airport potential still there
WestJet plans to stay around
June 25, 2010
Steve Arnold
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Business/article/796002
The dream of turning Hamilton's airport into a passenger mecca has suffered another disappointment, but its backers say their faith remains intact.
Calgary-based WestJet announced yesterday it will cut two-thirds of its Hamilton services effective Nov. 1. That will leave Calgary as the only Canadian destination directly served from Hamilton.
Karen Medweth, spokesperson for the airport, said the company was disappointed by the latest decision, but still believes in Hamilton's passenger potential.
"The important thing is that WestJet still believes in the Hamilton market," she said. "The economy has been very difficult and it's not just Hamilton that's experiencing these cuts."
Hamilton airport is operated by a private company called TradePort International Corporation under a long-term contract with the city.
TradePort won the contract in 1996 with a bid that promised the Mount Hope field would become a real alternative to Toronto's Pearson International for passengers.
For four brief years, starting in 2000 when WestJet chose Hamilton as its eastern hub, that dream seemed achievable as passenger volumes passed one million a year.
The dream crashed and burned early in 2004, however, when WestJet announced that 60 per cent of its Hamilton flights would be cancelled and its hub operations moved to Toronto.
Since then, Air Canada Jazz has come and gone from Hamilton along with Scottish discount carrier Flyglobespan, which offered British destinations. It collapsed into bankruptcy last December after its credit card service company failed.
In fact, since 1969 at least 11 scheduled passenger services have arrived in Hamilton to great fanfare only to depart again, sometimes in a matter of months.
Medweth said despite that record "we are out there every day talking to airlines about coming to Hamilton and there is lots of interest."
That interest is fed by the generally good experience of the airlines that do locate here, she said, noting for example that Flyglobespan, which offered a seasonal service during the summer and fall, reported good passenger volumes and failed not because of lack of demand, but because of cash flow problems.
"The market was there, they were very successful flights," she said. "The interest is there because the market is there."
WestJet spokesperson Robert Palmer supported those comments, noting Hamilton airport provides everything an airline could want -- easy access, a terminal designed to move people efficiently and quick turnarounds for aircraft.
The only thing it hasn't been able to deliver is passenger numbers.
"For us, the numbers just haven't been there for several winters," he said. "Despite that, we still believe in Hamilton airport and that's why we're still here."
Some of that may be because of emerging competition from airports in Kitchener, London and Windsor, the closeness of Toronto or other factors, he said.