[SteelTown]

Airport flies higher
John Rennison, the Hamilton Spectator

By Lisa Grace Marr
The Hamilton Spectator
(Mar 5, 2007)

John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport is growing up.

Compass Group Canada, a national food services company, has opened two Tim Hortons stores (one inside security, one in the lobby), an On the Fly store that offers everything from chewing gum to magazines and The Escarpment Lounge in the departure area.

Compass also has plans to renovate The Corner Cafe it already operates at the airport, transforming it into one of its Coyote Jack's Bar & Grill eateries.

The airport is also investing about $2 million in a number of other upgrades: A duty-free store it hopes will open in April, a renovated security screening area, a new kids play zone and a doubling of the international arrivals area.

It is scheduled to open May 1, the same day U.K. airline flyglobespan starts flights out of Hamilton.

Richard Koroscil, president of TradePort International which operates the airport, said its commercial development and expansion is part of an overall growth strategy and only partly due to flyglobespan's arrival.

Eric Cameron, regional director (Chartwells) Compass Group Canada, said the company responded to a request for a proposal before flyglobespan's announcement that it was coming to Hamilton. However, Cameron added it is evidence of the airport's potential.

"We're confident that flyglobespan will provide significant lift and we're pleased to be part of the airport's growth."

Compass, which has about 30 staff working at the airport, is a multinational, billion-dollar business and holds the highest number of Tim Hortons franchises in Canada.

It runs the on-board food service at WestJet and at several Hamilton locations, including Mohawk College and St. Joseph's Hospital.

Koroscil said the expansion is part of a strategy to expand services and flights slowly, keeping costs down for airlines and the airport.

"We take a different approach from many other airports. They spend billions and billions, we go slow. This is the first time we've had two main national carriers at the airport (Air Canada and WestJet) and we're now offering more destinations than at any other time in our history."

However, he acknowledged that flyglobespan's choice of Hamilton is big news.

With flyglobespan, Hamilton will offer more U.K. destinations than any other airport in Canada and will bring an estimated 600 extra passengers into the airport each day.

"There will be a 20 to 30 per cent lift in passenger traffic in '07 over '06," he said.

"Last year, we saw growth of over 20 per cent. Hamilton will directly benefit from this investment."