Hamilton International Airport - Page 151

HamAviMech · #**3001** Posted **Jan 5, 2026, 5:51 PM**

When do airlines release their spring/summer routes typically? Interested to see if Porter and WestJet add destinations this year. Heard Westjet might do Orlando year round.

LikeHamilton · #**3002** Posted **Jan 6, 2026, 1:42 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by HamAviMech

When do airlines release their spring/summer routes typically? Interested to see if Porter and WestJet add destinations this year. Heard Westjet might do Orlando year round.

They usually start around the middle of December, but it is different every year depending on how established the airline is in their market.

Swoop, I believe where doing three times a week to Orlando all year round and going to 5 or 6 during the winter months.

JakeLRS · #**3003** Posted **Jan 6, 2026, 6:18 AM**

We should have an idea of summer routes by March.

As of now:

Westjet - YYC (1-2 daily)
Porter - YHZ, YYC, YEG, YVR (Daily+).

I anticipate we'll see a pair of new PD routes. Very curious if they attempt to try YHM-YXX, which was a popular route offered by Swoop, but part of me thinks they won't since they will fly YVR twice daily. Another maritime route + maybe YUL to feed Air Transat is very much a possibility. YWG is possible, but I can't see much demand it for it.

I wouldn't be surprised if WestJet restarted YHZ to help feed Europe flights.

Innsertnamehere · #**3004** Posted **Jan 6, 2026, 4:52 PM**

feeding transfers at YHM will struggle I think because most passengers will instead just go to YYZ for direct access. YHM is too close to YYZ that most passengers will just go to YYZ to avoid a transfer somewhere else.

I'd like to see YUL or maybe YHU to connect to Porters other services there - Plus perhaps a few new US routes, even if just seasonal. LAS and either JFK or EWR would be nice as well.

Djeffery · #**3005** Posted **Jan 7, 2026, 12:26 AM**

Summer (at least) to Charlottetown would be awesome. They have one nonstop from YYZ through the heart of summer so I'm not sure if that is too much capacity with the couple AC flights a day as well, as well as their own connecting flights through Ottawa.

King&James · #**3006** Posted **Jan 7, 2026, 2:09 PM**

Montreal would be my first choice, with Ottawa placing second. Kelowna would be amazing, but not sure if enough demand.

Innsertnamehere · #**3007** Posted **Jan 7, 2026, 2:23 PM**

Looking at the busiest routes out of YYZ, we can get an idea of what YHM might be able to support that it currently doesn't service.

Right now the 10 busiest YYZ routes by number of daily flights not serviced by YHM are:

1. Montreal
2. New York
3. Chicago
4. Ottawa
5. Winnipeg
6. Washington
7. Philadelphia
8. San Francisco
9. London, UK
10. Boston

Of those, only San Francisco and Winnipeg really fit Porters model for their Embraers. They may be able to support Montreal flights as well given the demand on that route even with longer haul planes.

Note that many of these are also short haul routes with smaller planes which means more frequent departures.

The top 10 routes from YYZ which would fit the route type of Porters Embraers and which aren't hub airports (i.e. Charlotte and Dallas) are:

1. Winnipeg
2. San Francisco
3. Los Angeles
4. Saskatoon
5. St John's
6. Las Vegas
7. Tampa
8. Victoria
9. Houston
10. Mexico City

So I'd probably be looking for flights to Winnipeg, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Saskatoon and St John's soon.

urban_planner · #**3008** Posted **Jan 9, 2026, 10:02 AM**

If Porter add additional routes I'd only expect
YHM-YWG
YHM-YQM

Id like to see more but I dont think they will be overly aggressive based on what I've read so far of their loads from.YHM.

Having said that, they've taken 3 more jets in the past month and they'll need to use them somewhere.

Djeffery · #**3009** Posted **Jan 9, 2026, 11:35 AM**

When I originally booked a year ago for SFO this past summer, Porter had 2 flights a day on the schedule and within a couple months of Trump coming along, that was dropped to the single flight. I would expect a route like that would add back that second daily flight out of YYZ before adding one from YHM, but you never know.

LikeHamilton · #**3010** Posted **Jan 23, 2026, 12:37 AM**

I was was looking for a flight to Halifax this summer and Porter is showing 2 daily flights to Halifax. They also have Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver back. YVR 2nd flight to YHM is an overnight flight. No new announced yet.

Porter Airlines announced it will close its crew bases in Halifax and Thunder Bay on May 7th. Thunder Bay is the maintenance base for the Q400 aircraft.

Djeffery · #**3011** Posted **Jan 23, 2026, 1:01 AM**

They also have work done in St Thomas, not sure why type of specific work though, as there are planes from Europe there as well.

JakeLRS · #**3012** Posted **Jan 29, 2026, 6:19 PM**

Cross post from UrbanToronto Hamilton's Airport Thread

Porter has announced 2 new routes this summer.

St. John’s (YYT) - 5x weekly starting May 15th (Wed-Sun)
Winnipeg (YWG) - 5x weekly starting May 15th (Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat)

Porter has announced the following frequency increases over summer.

Fort Lauderdale - 2x weekly
Halifax - 14x weekly (up from 7x weekly)
Calgary - 7x weekly (up from 6x weekly)

Vancouver frequency decreased from 14x weekly last summer to 11x weekly this summer.

Comparing Previous Summers
2023: 28,892 Weekly Seats, 81 Weekly Departures, 4 Airlines
2024: 5,416 Weekly Seats, 29 Weekly Departures, 2 Airlines
2025: 10,242 Weekly Seats, 41 Weekly Departures, 2 Airlines
2026: 14,700 Weekly Seats, 58 Weekly Departures, 2 Airlines

YHM_S26_Dep by freerealms454, on Flickr

YHM_S26_Arr by freerealms454, on Flickr

SteelTown · #**3013** Posted **Feb 13, 2026, 3:15 PM**

Source: https://www.facebook.com/HamiltonInternationalAirport/

King&James · #**3014** Posted **Feb 13, 2026, 9:25 PM**

Bringing a tear to my eye, all grown up now.

HamAviMech · #**3015** Posted **Feb 13, 2026, 10:09 PM**

From what I'm hearing is any more big terminal growth is in hold unless there's more passenger growth. Porter isn't seeing the numbers that they were hoping to get but partially the blame is on the US political circus. Porter was hoping to have more planes and less engine issues by now. The airport will reevaluate in the spring and see if add more bridges and expanding the terminal is worth it. I was told the big project for this year is runway 06/24 rehab. If any terminal expansion it will probably pushing out the departures lounge to the east.

BCTed · #**3016** Posted **Feb 16, 2026, 4:33 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by HamAviMech

From what I'm hearing is any more big terminal growth is in hold unless there's more passenger growth. Porter isn't seeing the numbers that they were hoping to get but partially the blame is on the US political circus. Porter was hoping to have more planes and less engine issues by now. The airport will reevaluate in the spring and see if add more bridges and expanding the terminal is worth it. I was told the big project for this year is runway 06/24 rehab. If any terminal expansion it will probably pushing out the departures lounge to the east.

Doesn't sound good. But I assume the engine issues have nothing to do with passenger numbers.

JakeLRS · #**3017** Posted **Feb 17, 2026, 7:57 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by HamAviMech

From what I'm hearing is any more big terminal growth is in hold unless there's more passenger growth. Porter isn't seeing the numbers that they were hoping to get but partially the blame is on the US political circus. Porter was hoping to have more planes and less engine issues by now. The airport will reevaluate in the spring and see if add more bridges and expanding the terminal is worth it. I was told the big project for this year is runway 06/24 rehab. If any terminal expansion it will probably pushing out the departures lounge to the east.

A rough economy, people having less discretionary income, political downturn in the south aren't helping right now.

Swoop was able to capitalize on a decent economy pre-covid and captured the post-covid travel surge before being reabsorbed by Westjet.

I can attest that the porter loads were relatively... crap... in November and December from personal and family experiences from YHM.

Djeffery · #**3018** Posted **Feb 17, 2026, 9:22 PM**

I never understood why of all days to not run to FLL, it would be a Friday. I totally would have booked them for our cruise next month. Ended up booking out of Toronto.

LikeHamilton · #**3019** Posted **Feb 17, 2026, 11:24 PM**

I hope this is a sign on how well the summer sales out of YHM are going.

I was looking for a flight to St. John's NL (YYT) for this summer out of YHM and I noticed that porter is now flying 7 times a week to YYT up from 5. So, I checked the other destinations and found that Winnipeg (YWG) is now 6 days up from 4. Also, they are showing Dear Lake (YDF) as a connecting flight out of YHM through Halifax (YHZ). This is new.

So, I guess that JakeLRS is going to have to make an updated schedule!