London International Airport

[jammer139]

Good news for the airport with announcement of new 50,000 sq ft VIP hangar and lounge to be built over the next year.






https://lfpress.com/business/local-busin...-private-hangar-lounge-at-london-airport

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by jammer139

Good news for the airport with announcement of new 50,000 sq ft VIP hangar and lounge to be built over the next year.






https://lfpress.com/business/local-busin...-private-hangar-lounge-at-london-airport

It's 150,000 sq ft in total.

https://skiesmag.com/press-releases/lond...5uzxcO6HiT6YvzHfl6nNDfK6Rl_AF8DNNhZbxpf6

[Djeffery]

Also further info that this will be located at the east end of Huron St on the north side, just to the east of the cargo building.

[Justanothermember]

Nothing more to announce? Rather disappointing not having any new routes to unveil.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Justanothermember

Nothing more to announce? Rather disappointing not having any new routes to unveil.

Who needs routes, we got this new VIP hangar coming, beach volleyball coming, they already have a pickleball court out in the parking lot lol.

Definitely been a lack of flight announcements this year. Like many airports, we expected Westjet to maybe up the ante a bit when they shut Swoop down, but I think all we got was an extra Calgary flight 5 days a week. Flair will have Calgary 3 times a week and Vancouver twice a week through the summer months but that looks to be it.

[ericmacm]

2024 has been a terrible year for our airlines with the closure of many ULCCs and the consolidation of Sunwing into WestJet. I don’t expect the announcement of any new routes in smaller regional airports like YXU for a long time.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by ericmacm

2024 has been a terrible year for our airlines with the closure of many ULCCs and the consolidation of Sunwing into WestJet. I don’t expect the announcement of any new routes in smaller regional airports like YXU for a long time.

I think our best bet for something new is Porter to Ottawa, if they can find a route on a Q400 that they can upgrade to an E95 to free up a frame for us (or maybe buy some of the 7 or 8 parked in St Thomas). Maybe possibly to Montreal as well as they build up those 2 hubs. Porter also partnering with Air Transat opens up new opportunities for funneling traffic into YUL as well.

Hopefully we are far enough from Toronto that Air Canada doesn't consider us for their new Landline bus service they are running from Kitchener and Hamilton and cancelling our flights.

[rdaner]

This may have been covered but I wonder what the potential of London's airport for cargo and industrial products considering it is having a bit of a manufacturing renaissance? I thought that I read somewhere that airports are being used increasingly for assembly parts as it is becoming just as cheap and much faster to ship them by air as by truck?

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by rdaner

This may have been covered but I wonder what the potential of London's airport for cargo and industrial products considering it is having a bit of a manufacturing renaissance? I thought that I read somewhere that airports are being used increasingly for assembly parts as it is becoming just as cheap and much faster to ship them by air as by truck?

CAMI was getting lots of parts by air prior to their last shutdown and re-tooling. Not sure if the Brightdrop delivery van is as parts intensive and needs as many parts brought in for it as the SUV's they built before. I'm on a FB group that posts a lot of stuff from the airport and I haven't been seeing many cargo flights posted their lately. Plus I'm usually at or around the airport quite frequently for my work and haven't been noticing any DC-9/MD-80 sized freighters in quite a while. There were a couple small cargo planes that I noticed the last couple days, but they were business jet size.

[ericmacm]

Hard to say if YXU can become a major cargo/logistics hub when YHM is just an hour and a half down the road and is working on doing exactly that.

What I am hoping for is a follow up on the news a couple of years ago that Boeing Canada was looking at London for a major investment. Anything related to aviation production or even a major plane maintenance facility at YXU would go a long way.

[Djeffery]

What I'm curious about is the International Test Pilot School had announced a deal to buy about a dozen fighter trainer jets from Korea several years ago to modernize their fleet here but nothing has come of it. Makes me wonder if something might be brewing between them, Boeing and the RCAF, which recently stood down its jet trainer program until their next trainer is brought online. That plane hasn't been picked yet but is widely believed to be the Boeing T-7 Red Hawk. ITPS presently uses old Soviet era L29 and L39 aircraft (as well as a the museum's T-33 and Hawker Hunter on occasion) to train pilots from foreign air forces. I could totally see them partnering up with the RCAF and Boeing on initial jet training for our own pilots. But mostly I think that Boeing visit was more a PR show aimed at reminding the Canadian government that they are here and do big business in this country after their CSeries-Super Hornet spat a few years earlier.

As for cargo, London will always be a bit player compared to Hamilton. We will never pull any of the operations away from Hamilton. Cargojet is based there and they fly almost all of the domestic Purolator, UPS, Canada Post, Amazon and the other smaller courier company air freight from and to there. UPS also flies their international freight into YHM. DHL brings their international into YHM. Fedex is firmly entrenched at Pearson. London is a diversion airport for Cargojet, but they don't handle any freight here, they just refuel the jets and wait out the weather that prevents them from landing in Hamilton.

[Djeffery]

45% increase in passengers last year over 2022, to 332,000, still below half of the peak of 683,000 in 2019. Total aircraft movements also set a new record of 105,000, up 16% over the previous record in 2022, and still well above the pre-covid peak in 2019 of just under 80,000. This is made up on the strength of Western, Fanshawe and ITPS flight schools (the latter are the fighter trainer jets you may see/hear over the city during the day and the pilots are almost exclusively from foreign air forces). Positive news from an economic standpoint for the airport is the various development projects, as mentioned over the last several posts. But, we want to see flights, and who knows where we are going to get those from.

[Djeffery]

Flair Airlines announced Orlando for this winter starting Dec 20, Mondays and Fridays until late April. Different this year is they plan to fly into Orlando International MCO, rather than Sanford SFB.

[jammer139]

CTV article on Flair winter schedule out of London



https://london.ctvnews.ca/flair-airlines...nternational-airport-announced-1.6904619

[jammer139]

Regional airports see decline in flights.

CTV article:

https://london.ctvnews.ca/air-travel-ser...um-sized-cities-on-the-decline-1.6997484

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by jammer139

Regional airports see decline in flights.

CTV article:

https://london.ctvnews.ca/air-travel-ser...um-sized-cities-on-the-decline-1.6997484

I mean.... these are the destinations currently offered for London- and some of these are seasonal.

If you want to relieve the pressure of Pearson, get airports like London to have some more direct flights.

Before the pandemic we were starting to get some routes like Chicago, NYC, Vegas, etc.

Let's get these back along with some more domestic connections like Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal and Halifax.

[MolsonExport]

It is ridiculous that London lacks direct flights to Montreal and Ottawa, as well as Detroit and Chicago. The list of routes is really pathetic.

On the other hand, I have had so many issues making connections to London (from Toronto, on the way home from Europe/Asia)...missed/cancelled flights, lost luggage, etc., that I have basically given up on YXU. I now drive to Pearson and park in the long-term parking.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

It is ridiculous that London lacks direct flights to Montreal and Ottawa, as well as Detroit and Chicago. The list of routes is really pathetic.

On the other hand, I have had so many issues making connections to London (from Toronto, on the way home from Europe/Asia)...missed/cancelled flights, lost luggage, etc., that I have basically given up on YXU. I now drive to Pearson and park in the long-term parking.

If you're flying Air Canada from Toronto, its a huge perk to fly from London since friends/family can drop you off or you park cheap/take transit.

BUT, connecting flights are a bitch. Normally when there's a delay or a cancellation you're not happy, but when it means you might miss your connection it's super stressful. Flying direct is so much better. Also bring carry on only if possible to avoid lost luggage (and hope you're not forced to check it).

London and Hamilton airports need to really market themselves as a alternative to Pearson for anyone living west of Toronto.

[Djeffery]

The demise of small planes on the connector routes is what has done us in. And by small, these Q400's running out of YXU are large by comparison. The Saab 340's that Northwest used to run here and the 100 series Dash 8's of Jazz were perfect for us, with under 40 seats. Delta never kept those and there was no real replacement aircraft for that size and they ended up dumping smaller airports like ours, feeling people from here would just drive to Detroit. Same with the Dashes. Jazz used to run maybe 10-12 flights a day. Pretty much hourly through the morning and late afternoon rushes and a couple other flights midday and later in the evening. Gave you options if you missed one flight if your inbound Toronto flight from wherever in the world got in late. But slots at Toronto are getting harder to come by in the popular times so I can see why Air Canada would run the larger Q400's fewer times a day.

Honestly, wouldn't be shocked if the Land Line buses in Waterloo and Hamilton see high use that they expand that to London and drop flights altogether.

[Djeffery]

Progress on the indoor beach volleyball building at the northwest corner of Crumlin and Robin's Hill Roads.