Halifax Stanfield International Airport Developments

[Aya_Akai]

Very cool video indeed, now they just need to get some designers on par with their video production crew to make their website less stupid.

[fenwick16]

I found the following video on Youtube of a plane landing at the Halifax International Airport. I like it because it shows the entire city. It is viewed best in fullscreen mode and HD quality - then the city, harbour and bridges can be seen best.

• Video Link

[Keith P.]

Amazing how much undeveloped land there is between the peninsula and the airport. I marvel at the amount of wilderness every time I fly into HIAA.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Keith P.

Amazing how much undeveloped land there is between the peninsula and the airport. I marvel at the amount of wilderness every time I fly into HIAA.

Exactly.

I watched the video too and I thought the same thing. This stands as a testament to just how inconvenient the airport is to downtown Halifax.

The airport should be in Shearwater....

[q12]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Exactly.

I watched the video too and I thought the same thing. This stands as a testament to just how inconvenient the airport is to downtown Halifax.

The airport should be in Shearwater....

Could be worse like when Montreal built Mirabel 60 km away from Downtown Montreal (although they abandoned the passenger terminal). Stanfield is only half that from Downtown and about the same as Pearson from Downtown Toronto (with less traffic).

On the other hand Stanfield's easy access and central location in the province mean it's also used as a regional airport for the Maritimes. It also means there are no noise restrictions and can operate 24 hours a day.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by q12

On the other hand Stanfield's central location in the province means it's also used as a regional airport for Nova Scotia.

Fixed it for you....

[haligonia]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Fixed it for you....

Jesus. You, sir, need to get your head out of whatever Moncton fantasy land you're living in and realize that Stanfield offers flights to significantly more destinations than Moncton's airport. If you're flying from Moncton to anywhere other than a handful of cities, you'll be connecting through Halifax or a larger airport outside of the Maritimes. I know many New Brunswickers who find it more convenient to fly out of Halifax than to connect through one of their province's smaller airports. Stanfield is a regional airport, period.

It seems that every time you pay a visit to the Halifax forum it's to either make a remark about the city's downfalls or to overstate the importance of you oh-so wonderful city.

[scooby074]

One thing that stands out to me in that video are the Shannon Park lands and how underutilized they are. What a great location for the Stadium. I never realized just how large the area is. It is almost perfect with easy highway access, in a sort of "industrial" area so late night traffic and noise is a non-issue, and would have great harbour access for the ferries.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by haligonia

Jesus. You, sir, need to get your head out of whatever Moncton fantasy land you're living in and realize that Stanfield offers flights to significantly more destinations than Moncton's airport. If you're flying from Moncton to anywhere other than a handful of cities, you'll be connecting through Halifax or a larger airport outside of the Maritimes. I know many New Brunswickers who find it more convenient to fly out of Halifax than to connect through one of their province's smaller airports. Stanfield is a regional airport, period.

It seems that every time you pay a visit to the Halifax forum it's to either make a remark about the city's downfalls or to overstate the importance of you oh-so wonderful city.

You sir are overly sensitive. I did not say anything about the Moncton Airport in my post and I agree with you, that in order to reach many destinations from Moncton, you do in fact need to make connections. Those connections however are usually through Toronto or perhaps Montreal. We have more flights, in larger aircraft from Moncton to Toronto than from Moncton to Halifax. It is thus usually more convenient to fly to TO than Halifax to get anywhere else in the world.

I fly several times per year, and in the 24 years that I have lived in Moncton (since moving from Halifax), I have flown out of Stanfield exactly twice. I flew to Europe once on Iceland Air and that was an excellent experience. The other time was a flight to Boston which I will not be doing again. It was a hassle from front to back and I could have driven there quicker from Moncton than by going via Halifax!

I am happy that Halifax has an excellent international airport, but it is not as important to New Brunswickers as you seem to believe. For most of us, it makes more sense to make connections in Toronto. if you are from western NB, it actually makes more sense to fly out of Bangor.......

And BTW, I have never said anything about Halifax's "downfall", and the only time I get into comparisons with Halifax is regarding the CFL. If you look carefully at any other of my posts on the Halifax threads, they tend to be neutral or at least mildly positive.

[Fischbob]

As a Saint Johner, I definitely don't consider Halifax Stanfield an option when I'm shopping for flights. If Fredericton or Moncton happens to offer favourable prices or timetables, I will choose to fly out of there, but the extra few hours it would take to drive to Halifax just aren't worth any additional timetable or destination benefits it may offer. This is why the suggestion is often made that southern NB would benefit from a central airport in the Sussex area to serve all 3 cities.

A lot of people I know in SJ do indeed fly out of Bangor if they're going to US destinations, as the airfare savings can be significant, but I haven't heard about anyone who's made the drive to Halifax for a flight. Sorry guys

[q12]

Originally Posted by Fischbob

A lot of people I know in SJ do indeed fly out of Bangor if they're going to US destinations, as the airfare savings can be significant, but I haven't heard about anyone who's made the drive to Halifax for a flight. Sorry guys

That's nice. Halifax is the Maritimes regional airport whether a couple forumers from N.B. like it or not.

Check the airport parkade or park'n fly and see how many N.B. and P.E.I. plates you will see, especially at this time of year. The passenger numbers speak for themselves that it is not solely Nova Scotians using the airport.

I know of people who drive from western N.B. to fly out of Halifax on a charter flights to the Caribbean every year (You can't fly to Cuba from Bangor ). Halifax is a significant hub for Air Canada's flights down south as one example.

You can add Cancun, Orlando and Tampa (with U.S. preclearance) to this map as well.

http://enroute.aircanada.com/en/magazine

[q12]

Cool shot of the airport from last fall (I'm guessing) that is on the airport's facebook site.


https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/736752_10151348191481245_2089496822_o.jpg
http://www.facebook.com/hfxstanfield

[someone123]

You can tell by the lack of moose-catchers that none of these planes are NB-bound.

[KnoxfordGuy]

When I flew to England I flew from Fredericton to Halifax to Toronto to London. lmao it was a loooooooong day.

[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by KnoxfordGuy

When I flew to England I flew from Fredericton to Halifax to Toronto to London. lmao it was a loooooooong day.

Isn't there a daily direct flight on Air Canada (flight AC860)?

[macgregor]

Originally Posted by fenwick16

Isn't there a daily direct flight on Air Canada (flight AC860)?

Yes, but only 3x per week. I took it this winter, it was very convenient.

[q12]

Originally Posted by macgregor

Yes, but only 3x per week. I took it this winter, it was very convenient.

It is 4x a week in the winter and ramps up to daily from May 1st to November 1st.

[KnoxfordGuy]

I flew out March 3rd, 2008.

[kwajo]

Originally Posted by KnoxfordGuy

When I flew to England I flew from Fredericton to Halifax to Toronto to London. lmao it was a loooooooong day.

As someone who prefers to fly out of Halifax (if I can't get a good deal here in Saint John), I can attest that though there are a few of us around that do use YHZ as a regional hub airport, far more seem to choose to go the opposite way and fly from Bangor [or occasionally even Boston or Portland]. Personally I don't like driving to the USA to fly, I prefer to come and go from within my own country, but it seems to be a very popular option versus Halifax these days.

Once the new highway gets built across Maine, I suspect heading South from this part of New Brunswick will eliminate most NB commuting to Halifax for flights.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by kwajo

As someone who prefers to fly out of Halifax (if I can't get a good deal here in Saint John), I can attest that though there are a few of us around that do use YHZ as a regional hub airport, far more seem to choose to go the opposite way and fly from Bangor [or occasionally even Boston or Portland]. Personally I don't like driving to the USA to fly, I prefer to come and go from within my own country, but it seems to be a very popular option versus Halifax these days.

Once the new highway gets built across Maine, I suspect heading South from this part of New Brunswick will eliminate most NB commuting to Halifax for flights.

Basically, it comes down to personal preference and available options:

If you are from CB or PEI, you have little option but to use YHZ as a hub. There are no alternatives but Halifax out of Sydney, and not many options out of Charlottetown (because of low service frequency, especially in the winter).

If you are from greater Moncton/eastern NB, there are more flights on larger aircraft on multiple carriers (AC, WestJet, Porter) from Moncton to Toronto than there is from Moncton to YHZ. Toronto therefore tends to be our default hub as a result. We can also use Montreal and New York as hubs. This is not to say that people from Moncton never use YHZ. Of course they do, it's just that depending on the destination, the connections can be much better out of TO.

If you are from western NB, Toronto also exists as an alternate hub but there is significant competition out of Bangor, especially for US connection. It is only a 2.5 hour drive from SJ to Bangor, and there is the added bonus that you clear customs before you get to the airport.

Personally, I dislike US airlines so I tend to fly Air Canada a lot. My destinations are usually in the midwest, Florida or the west coast. It just makes sense for me to use Toronto for connections. For example, I will likely be going to a conference in San Diego next year. A single connection in Toronto on Air Canada will get me there. What could be more simple than that?

New Brunswickers of course use YHZ, especially for leisure travel. While you can fly to the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico and Orlando directly out of Moncton, and there are also sunshine destinations from SJ and Freddy too, the service frequency is better out of YHZ and can conform better to individual travel plans based on timing. It can make sense to use Halifax in situations like that.

Halifax Stanfield is an excellent airport that Halifax and Nova Scotia should be very proud of. My basic contention remains the same though. YHZ is not as important to NB as a lot of Halifax forumers might think. Regardless of what Haligonia might think, I am not Halifax bashing here. I am just presenting an alternate viewpoint and position. This should be respected on this forum.....