Hamilton International Airport - Page 98

DDP · #**1941** Posted **Jul 23, 2019, 9:06 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zmonkey

WestJet also won a lot of corporate accounts from Air Canada from Edmonton and Calgary when they moved to Toronto. Business travelers wanted Pearson. Petro Canada for example flew everyone through Pearson on Air Canada when going to there operations in Mississauga and Oakville. WestJet got some of that business when flipping over to Pearson.

Much of WestJet's east Coast growth and profitability came from being at Pearson.

Toronto is now WestJets largest airport by passenger count, it passed Calgary years ago. I am surprised people are questioning WestJet's decision to go to Toronto. It was clearly the right one.

mishap · #**1942** Posted **Jul 24, 2019, 2:30 AM**

Nobody's questioning their decision, just their sincerity. WestJet wanted to become a mainstream airline (after bashing them) without admitting as much, So they had to come up with other reasons to justify the shift to Pearson.

NortheastWind · #**1943** Posted **Jul 24, 2019, 5:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by urban_planner

And I was told tey blammed it on the weather which is Ironic because quite ofter flights divert to yhm from yyz. Also of that were that case then Porter airlines would have relocated here ages ago. Fact of the matter YHM wpuld never have grown enough to expand to the size weatjet would jave needed looking at how big they are now.

It wasn't just WestJet who had an issue with the weather, so did UPS. Afterwards Transport Canada and NavCan installed an new instrument landing system that allows the aircraft to get closer to the runway in poor visibility before the pilot decides to abort the landing.

LikeHamilton · #**1944** Posted **Jul 26, 2019, 12:36 AM**

Hamilton International Airport’s (YHM) winter 2019-20 schedule.

Swoop schedule goes to April 26, 2020. Its only new destination in Los Cabos, Mexico, form Edmonton and Winnipeg. They are adding more sun routes from Winnipeg, Edmonton and London, Ont. There is no new destinations from Hamilton but everything is back from last year. 11 Destinations and 44 flights a week (52 last year). I suspect it may change as they will be accepting the delivery of three more aircraft by the end of 2019, bringing their fleet total to 10 Boeing 737-NG 800s.

Sunwing is adding Cayo Coco, Cayo Santa Maria and Cancun and returning Varadero, Montego Bay and Punta Cana.

Air Transat will be adding new direct flight to Santa Clara, Cuba, as well as a second weekly direct fight to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Westjet will go back to one flight a day but no Saturday service.

Jetlines has set a launch date of December 17, 2019 using Vancouver (YVR) as Jetlines’ home airport. Jetlines will start with two Airbus A320 scheduled to be delivered by November 5, 2019. Jetlines have stated that they have “chosen Hamilton as its Eastern focus city” and have stated in a press release a while ago that they have entered into an agreement with YHM. “The high demand for lower airfares in the Toronto Metropolitan Area has led to the decision to base our flying in this region.”

Historically, airlines start ticket sales 90 days before start of a new route. This would be September 18, 2019 for Canada Jetlines.

Only time will tell.

This winter YHM will serve 19 destinations. 4 destinations have 2 airlines serving it and Cancun has 3 airlines serving it with 6 flights a week from YHM.

There will be 65 flights a week from YHM, down from the 87 last year. If you take away Air Canada’s 19 flights and one WestJet flight, last year would have been 67 flights a week.

2019 Schedule

Swoop

Abbotsford Daily except Saturday
Winnipeg Daily except Thursday
Edmonton Daily except Saturday
Halifax Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday
Las Vegas Monday, Thursday, Friday & Sunday
Orlando Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Saturday
Tampa Bay Monday, Wednesday & Sunday
Cancun Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday
Fort Lauderdale Monday, Friday & Saturday
Puerto Vallarta Wednesday, Friday & Sunday
Montego Bay Wednesday & Saturday

11 Destinations and 44 flights a week

Air Transat

Cayo Coco, Cuba Sunday
Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba Monday
Varadero, Cuba Saturday
Santa Clara, Cuba Friday
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic Monday
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic Friday & Sunday
Cancun-Riviera Maya, Mexico Tuesday & Saturday

6 Destinations and 8 flights a week

Sunwing

Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba Friday
Cayo Coco, Cuba Sunday
Varadero, Cuba Wednesday & Saturday
Cancun-Riviera Maya, Mexico Sunday
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic Friday
Montego Bay, Jamaica Saturday

6 Destinations and 7 flights a week

WestJet

Hamilton and Calgary Daily except Saturday

1 Destinations and 6 flights a week

movingtohamilton · #**1945** Posted **Jul 26, 2019, 12:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LikeHamilton

Hamilton International Airport’s (YHM) winter 2019-20 schedule.

Jetlines has set a launch date of December 17, 2019 using Vancouver (YVR) as Jetlines’ home airport. Jetlines will start with two Airbus A320 scheduled to be delivered by November 5, 2019. Jetlines have stated that they have “chosen Hamilton as its Eastern focus city” and have stated in a press release a while ago that they have entered into an agreement with YHM. “The high demand for lower airfares in the Toronto Metropolitan Area has led to the decision to base our flying in this region.”

Historically, airlines start ticket sales 90 days before start of a new route. This would be September 18, 2019 for Canada Jetlines.

Only time will tell.

From the Globe and Mail, July 26:

"After years of struggling to launch its low-cost service, Canada Jetlines Ltd. set a new deadline earlier this year to launch in December. But five months ahead of that target date, the airline is still grappling with several barriers."
....
".... the airline cannot start selling seats until it receives its licence from the Canadian Transportation Agency, which requires the company to show that it has the cash to manage and operate a passenger airline. With the approaching deadline, Jetlines is running out of time. It has raised about $34-million to date, but needs an additional $40-million before launch, Mr. Morabito said, adding that investors are wary of investing in Canadian low-cost airlines in a market dominated by two major carriers."

Sorry for extensive quoting but online is subscriber-only, afaik. Link here: https://tinyurl.com/y3mwo8n9

Djeffery · #**1946** Posted **Jul 26, 2019, 11:24 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by movingtohamilton

From the Globe and Mail, July 26:

"After years of struggling to launch its low-cost service, Canada Jetlines Ltd. set a new deadline earlier this year to launch in December. But five months ahead of that target date, the airline is still grappling with several barriers."
....
".... the airline cannot start selling seats until it receives its licence from the Canadian Transportation Agency, which requires the company to show that it has the cash to manage and operate a passenger airline. With the approaching deadline, Jetlines is running out of time. It has raised about $34-million to date, but needs an additional $40-million before launch, Mr. Morabito said, adding that investors are wary of investing in Canadian low-cost airlines in a market dominated by two major carriers."

Sorry for extensive quoting but online is subscriber-only, afaik. Link here: https://tinyurl.com/y3mwo8n9

And apparently the aircraft they were planning to lease have been sold out from under them. Likely a result of fleet shortages due to the continued Max 8 issues.

Truenorth00 · #**1947** Posted **Jul 27, 2019, 12:19 AM**

There's no market for ULCCs like Jetlines in Canada. Swoop and Rouge are working fantastically as a flanker brands to keep the AC/WestJet duopoly in place.

ScreamingViking · #**1948** Posted **Jul 27, 2019, 2:12 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

There's no market for ULCCs like Jetlines in Canada. Swoop and Rouge are working fantastically as a flanker brands to keep the AC/WestJet duopoly in place.

It's a tough nut to crack given the ability of Air Canada and WestJet to win the fare battle, using the financial clout of their main business lines to absorb any losses in a ULCC war of attrition against the littler guys. They also have flexibility to devote resources to squash small challengers (737 MAX clusterfack aside)

WestJet was one of those "littler guys" at one time though. They filled gaps left by the failure of larger airlines, but perhaps another small but smart and well financed airline can gain a foothold?

Truenorth00 · #**1949** Posted **Jul 27, 2019, 5:19 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

It's a tough nut to crack given the ability of Air Canada and WestJet to win the fare battle, using the financial clout of their main business lines to absorb any losses in a ULCC war of attrition against the littler guys. They also have flexibility to devote resources to squash small challengers (737 MAX clusterfack aside)

WestJet was one of those "littler guys" at one time though. They filled gaps left by the failure of larger airlines, but perhaps another small but smart and well financed airline can gain a foothold?

People like to think Canada is just like the US. And that means that ULCCs would work. It's not. There was recently, a great post on airliners.net, that cover a lot of the obstacles:

https://www.airliners.net/forum/view...?f=3&t=1427683

See post #8 from jimbo737 there.

Half of all Canadians stay in the Quebec-Windsor corridor. Another 20% is in the lower mainland. Effectively, this means the bulk of travel is inside the corridor and to/from the lower mainland. Add in the fact that 20% of Canadians live in a francophone province with less inclination to travel to Canada, and effectively it means we have a much smaller market than our geography would seem to imply.

We are also a country where aviation is very heavily taxed and is a cash cow for both provincial and federal governments. That, by definition, means every airline ticket starts out >$50 before actually paying a fare or ancillary costs. And because aviation in Canada is self-supporting, this means very little government investment in building out airports. Our three biggest airports are already slot-constrained, so on top of the taxes, slots are going to cost airlines. That leaves very little room to discount domestic and transborder flying substantially.

This is why I've long argued, there's only one real path for LCC growth in Canada: trans-atlantic service from secondary cities. Hamilton is perfectly positioned for this. Forget Swoop. Push hard for European and American LCCs. That's where the real growth potential is.

JakeLRS · #**1950** Posted **Jul 27, 2019, 7:00 PM**

Flair has been doing pretty decent considering they launched “NewLeaf” operations 3 years ago, although they somehow find a way to screw themselves over every winter.

Flairs summer ops seem to be running very smoothly with promising loads on most of the routes this summer.

ScreamingViking · #**1951** Posted **Jul 27, 2019, 9:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

People like to think Canada is just like the US. And that means that ULCCs would work. It's not. There was recently, a great post on airliners.net, that cover a lot of the obstacles:

https://www.airliners.net/forum/view...?f=3&t=1427683

See post #8 from jimbo737 there.

Half of all Canadians stay in the Quebec-Windsor corridor. Another 20% is in the lower mainland. Effectively, this means the bulk of travel is inside the corridor and to/from the lower mainland. Add in the fact that 20% of Canadians live in a francophone province with less inclination to travel to Canada, and effectively it means we have a much smaller market than our geography would seem to imply.

We are also a country where aviation is very heavily taxed and is a cash cow for both provincial and federal governments. That, by definition, means every airline ticket starts out >$50 before actually paying a fare or ancillary costs. And because aviation in Canada is self-supporting, this means very little government investment in building out airports. Our three biggest airports are already slot-constrained, so on top of the taxes, slots are going to cost airlines. That leaves very little room to discount domestic and transborder flying substantially.

This is why I've long argued, there's only one real path for LCC growth in Canada: trans-atlantic service from secondary cities. Hamilton is perfectly positioned for this. Forget Swoop. Push hard for European and American LCCs. That's where the real growth potential is.

Add more toughness to the nut.

Your last point makes a lot of sense. A lot, a lot.

HamAviMech · #**1952** Posted **Aug 6, 2019, 10:50 PM**

Detour is hiring a Barista and server for the Hamilton Airport. Saw it on Indeed. Looks like more options for food.

LikeHamilton · #**1953** Posted **Aug 8, 2019, 5:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by HamAviMech

Detour is hiring a Barista and server for the Hamilton Airport. Saw it on Indeed. Looks like more options for food.

EQUAL PARTS HOSPITALITY who run the Aberdeen Tavern, The Diplomat, Knollwood Golf Courses, The French and The Beer Garden @ MIP are adding 2 food service areas at YHM. One will post screening and the other will be pre screening. They are to be adding a coffee alternative to Tim Horton's and J&A's Keurig coffee service so I guess that they have teamed up with Detour for this.