Hamilton International Airport

[thistleclub]

No aerotropolis decision till 2011
Airport boss calls it 'sitting on our hands'

Emma Reilly
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jun 16, 2010)

The road to aerotropolis just got longer.

Yesterday, the economic development and planning committee voted to shelve any decisions on the future of the airport employment lands until 2011.

The move was intended to give the public more time to digest the complex planning documents.

But the delay to the controversial airport development -- which puts off any decisions until after October's election -- is already drawing fire from the business community.

Richard Koroscil, the CEO and president of the airport and the chairperson of the Chamber of Commerce, said, "We're a community looking desperately for jobs, and here we are saying let's just park it for six months. For half a year, we'll just sit on our hands. Why would we do that?

"There should be a sense of urgency here. What kind of leadership is that?"

The delay came out of a presentation to the planning committee yesterday on the draft secondary plan for the airport employment growth district. The plan, which outlines the future development plans for the airport district, needs to be endorsed by council before it's officially released for public feedback.

Staff originally recommended that public consultation take place over July and August, leaving enough time for staff to report back for a council decision in September. However, councillors argued the timing would catch residents during their vacations.

Council would be "accused of trying to sneak something through over the summer," said Councillor Brian McHattie.

Environment Hamilton also urged council to allow the public more time, arguing the project's scope merits giving community members extra time to fully understand the plan.

Without hearings before the election, the committee had no choice but to push the consultation to January 2011 because regular city meetings stop in early October for the election and don't resume until after the new council is sworn in.

Committee's decision still needs to be ratified by council next week.

The timing of the public consultation wasn't the only contentious issue at yesterday's meeting.

Kieran Dickson of Hamiltonians for Progressive Development argued the plans shouldn't be going out for public consultation when they don't include any financial information.

"You are approving a secondary plan today which does not include the financial implications," he said. "It's our position that this is absurd."

But Guy Paparella, the city's director of industrial land and airport development, said that's city practice.

"We don't have financial information in any secondary plan process that we've ever done."

A report outlining the potential costs will be ready next week, Paparella said. It will be presented to the planning committee July 5.

[markbarbera]

Typical city hall procastination. Why make a decision today when it can be put off until after an election...

Two months is plenty of time for public consultations. McHattie's statement about this sneaking through in the summer is a red herring. This process has been going on since what 2004 with significant media coverage. Council should ignore the committee and vote to stick to the staff's recommended timetable at the next council meeting.

[markbarbera]

As reported on 900chml.com:

Mayor disappointed by airport lands delay

Ken Mann
6/16/2010


We won't know if he's been successful until next Wednesday.

But Hamilton's mayor would like city politicians to reconsider a decision that was made, as part of this week's economic development and planning committee meeting.

Fred Eisenberger stresses that the creation of employment lands around the airport has been "years in the making", adding that "we need to get on with this".

The mayor adds that if it were not to happen at all, as some in this community would like, it would be a "veritable disaster".

Members of the committee have voted to delay any decisions about the future of the airport employment lands until next year, at the earliest, to allow for more public consultation.

Let's hope sanity prevails at next week's council meeting. If Eisenberger cannot get council to support him on this, there's really no point in voting for him come October...

[realcity]

Why doesn't anyone refer to the "Burlington Street Employment Lands", or "Sherman North Employment Lands", or "Gage Employment Lands"?

What? are those lands all full? O sorry we need to expand into the greenspace since we've filled all the fully-serviced, multi-accessible lands.

That's what we do in Hamilton. First, we fill the urban area, then we expand the urban area as needed. That's why we do not have a donut of a city.

[realcity]

Originally Posted by markbarbera

Typical city hall procastination. Why make a decision today when it can be put off until after an election...

Two months is plenty of time for public consultations. McHattie's statement about this sneaking through in the summer is a red herring. This process has been going on since what 2004 with significant media coverage. Council should ignore the committee and vote to stick to the staff's recommended timetable at the next council meeting.

This term of monkeys has got to be the most least productive term of 'politicians' ever that I've seen in my voting life. The only things happening are from outside decisions/influences, PanAm, Metrolynx, public downtown development.

I have no idea what this term of government has done in the last 3 years?, except to respond to Matt Jelly's By-Law Crawl by slapping Vranich with a fine.

Every year, I swear this city gets worse overall. There are pockets of steps forward and then two steps backwards.

Even at least DiIanni had objectives, even if failed.,. The removal of the halfway-house downtown being one. Eisenberger should've kept that torch going. DiIanni I believe was trying to get the CN rail yards moved to Burlington. But those talks have stopped and now we are thinking of building a stadium by the rail yards or risk moving the stadium to where we wanted the rail yards moved to.???

Actually the high-point in the last 4 years was our new Police Chief, he seems to be the only one determined to do anything new. That being, the job at hand.

Hey everyone.... just check off the name you know on your ballet next election. Actually doing ANYTHING different can't do ANTHING worse. because doing what we've been doing for the last ... say 30 years .... can't do any worse.

[bigguy1231]

Originally Posted by realcity

Why doesn't anyone refer to the "Burlington Street Employment Lands", or "Sherman North Employment Lands", or "Gage Employment Lands"?

What? are those lands all full? O sorry we need to expand into the greenspace since we've filled all the fully-serviced, multi-accessible lands.

That's what we do in Hamilton. First, we fill the urban area, then we expand the urban area as needed. That's why we do not have a donut of a city.

Those lands have been vacant for how many years. You would think if someone wanted to use them they would have been snapped up by now. The reality is developers don't want those lands. They want green fields. If they don't get them here they will go elsewhere as they have for the last 30 years. Thats why places like Burlington have taken all the jobs from this city. The people that have the money decide what gets built and where they are going to build it. Cities that fail to understand that simple principle and place too many restrictions on developers lose out. This city is a prime example of that.

[SteelTown]

Just take a look at London and all the new recent economic growth around the Airport. Even the Airport is under going a renovation and expansion.

[markbarbera]

Should council fail to support Eisenberger and decide to uphold the deferral of a decision on AEGD, this will provide DiIanni with the perfect draw into the mayorlty race. He could use the AEGD dithering as a rallying point for support much in the same way he used the Red Hill Creek Parkway issue to rally support to handily win the 2003 mayorlty race. For Eisenberger, losing the Wednesday vote to reverse the committee decision to defer AEGD decision will be a game changer.

[SteelTown]

Well Eisenberger has never really gotten council on his side for anything over the last four years.

That's one thing I miss about Di Ianni, his ability to unite councilors together on an agenda.

[SteelTown]

Eisenberger's motion passed, hold public consultations in July, August, and early September. Final report to council in late September.

[SteelTown]

Council moves up aerotropolis decision
Eisenberger manages to get committee to back off delay

June 23, 2010
Emma Reilly
Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/794952

Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger managed to convince city council tonight not to delay a decision on aerotropolis until 2011.

Instead, the decision will be made in late September. And there will be three public meetings over the summer as opposed to just one.

Last week, the economic development and planning committee voted to shelve any decisions on the future of the airport employment lands until next January to allow more time for public consultation. That decision was reversed – at tonight’s council meeting.

The delay came out of a presentation to the planning committee last Tuesday on the draft secondary plan for the airport employment growth district. The plan must be endorsed by council before it's officially released for public feedback.

Staff originally recommended that public consultation take place over July and August, leaving enough time for staff to report back for a council decision in September. However, councillors argued the timing would catch residents during their vacations.

But the earlier push to delay the controversial airport development and put off any decisions until after October's election drew fire from the business community.


Eisenberger said last week that he would lobby his colleagues to reverse committee’s ruling.

Here are the results of the vote. In favour of moving forward before the election were:
Eisenberger and councillors Duvall, Pasuta, Collin, Merulla, Morelli, Pearson, Mitchell, Powers, Jackson and Whitehead.

Opposed were councillors Bratina, McHattie, Clark, Ferguson and McCarthy.

[drpgq]

This is truly sad and not good news for the city at all. The worst will be having to hear CATCH say I told you so.

WestJet slashes Hamilton flights again

June 24, 2010
STEVE ARNOLD
WestJet is slashing its services from Hamilton airport again.

In a news release this morning, the airline said it will cut its local flights by almost two-third effective November 1. The number will be slashed from 42 flights a week to only 16.

WestJet spokesman Robert Palmer said the decision was a hard one, but Hamilton simply wasn’t producing enough passengers to maintain that level of service.

Gone are daily flights to Moncton, Winnipeg, Halifax and Edmonton.

The decision also means the airline’s staff in Hamilton will be cut by half, from 30 full-time equivalents to 15, although all affected employees have been offered other positions in the company.

In a news release, Hamilton airport spokesperson Karen Medwith said airport operators were disappointed, but understand the forces behind the decision.

“Although we are disappointed with this decision, we understand WestJet’s need to manage profitability in this fragile recovering economy,” she said in a news release. “We appreciate WestJet’s on-going use of our airport and expect them to return next summer with the full complement of flights.”

Regular services to Calgary, which include 13 scheduled weekly flights, will continue as will WestJet flights to Cancún, Mexico; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and Orlando, Florida. WestJet intends to return in summer 2011.

See the full story in tomorrow’s Hamilton Spectator

[SteelTown]

OUCH! No more Halifax?! Sad. I don't wanna go to Toronto.

[markbarbera]

These destinations are supposed to be back next summer. Winter loads to these destinations are not high enough to justify the use of 737's. WestJet is hamstrung by as lack of versatility in routes because its fleet format. YHM needs to attract a short-haul service that uses Q400's like Porter does.

In related news, YTZ has assigned slots to Air Canada and Continental. Porter is unhappy about having to share that airport now as they will have less post-expansion slots than they had hoped for (44 instead of 112). Maybe they can be coaxed into testing a few routes out of YHM.

[urban_planner]

Definatly need to find somone to fill this void with a smaller aircraft. Like was already said Porter might be good or Jazz. However i am starting to question Tradeport a little bit here. Maybe its time to bring the terminal up to 2010 standards.

[SteelTown]

Airport potential still there
WestJet plans to stay around

June 25, 2010
Steve Arnold
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Business/article/796002

The dream of turning Hamilton's airport into a passenger mecca has suffered another disappointment, but its backers say their faith remains intact.

Calgary-based WestJet announced yesterday it will cut two-thirds of its Hamilton services effective Nov. 1. That will leave Calgary as the only Canadian destination directly served from Hamilton.

Karen Medweth, spokesperson for the airport, said the company was disappointed by the latest decision, but still believes in Hamilton's passenger potential.

"The important thing is that WestJet still believes in the Hamilton market," she said. "The economy has been very difficult and it's not just Hamilton that's experiencing these cuts."

Hamilton airport is operated by a private company called TradePort International Corporation under a long-term contract with the city.

TradePort won the contract in 1996 with a bid that promised the Mount Hope field would become a real alternative to Toronto's Pearson International for passengers.

For four brief years, starting in 2000 when WestJet chose Hamilton as its eastern hub, that dream seemed achievable as passenger volumes passed one million a year.

The dream crashed and burned early in 2004, however, when WestJet announced that 60 per cent of its Hamilton flights would be cancelled and its hub operations moved to Toronto.

Since then, Air Canada Jazz has come and gone from Hamilton along with Scottish discount carrier Flyglobespan, which offered British destinations. It collapsed into bankruptcy last December after its credit card service company failed.

In fact, since 1969 at least 11 scheduled passenger services have arrived in Hamilton to great fanfare only to depart again, sometimes in a matter of months.

Medweth said despite that record "we are out there every day talking to airlines about coming to Hamilton and there is lots of interest."

That interest is fed by the generally good experience of the airlines that do locate here, she said, noting for example that Flyglobespan, which offered a seasonal service during the summer and fall, reported good passenger volumes and failed not because of lack of demand, but because of cash flow problems.

"The market was there, they were very successful flights," she said. "The interest is there because the market is there."

WestJet spokesperson Robert Palmer supported those comments, noting Hamilton airport provides everything an airline could want -- easy access, a terminal designed to move people efficiently and quick turnarounds for aircraft.

The only thing it hasn't been able to deliver is passenger numbers.

"For us, the numbers just haven't been there for several winters," he said. "Despite that, we still believe in Hamilton airport and that's why we're still here."

Some of that may be because of emerging competition from airports in Kitchener, London and Windsor, the closeness of Toronto or other factors, he said.

[fastcarsfreedom]

A couple of points to weigh-in on...

Despite the gnashing of teeth over the airport--WestJet proved one thing (while the hub was here) -- that is, that the airport can work. The service levels between 2000 and 2004 (and the passenger numbers that followed) proved that. Despite the hoop-la about low yields when the hub was moved to Pearson--the operation at YHM was very successful...it was only the failure of Canada 3000 and a sweetheart deal from the GTAA that brought WestJet to Terminal 3.

Second point--Hamilton has lost most (if not all) of it's champions at WestJet. Steve Smith (as CEO) was the real champion--and his departure began the long slow decline of Hamilton's importance in the airline's network. It is now an outstation just like Kitchener, London and Windsor. Going forward this is an airline that is changing it's mandate and evolving. They appear headed in the direction of being a clone of AC as far as domestic and trans-border goes...AC with a lower cost-structure...they appear driven to pursue higher-yield business traffic and have hinted about significant international expansion. They went 2 years into building a relationship with Southwest (the airline they originally hoped to emulate) only to switch horses and go with a legacy network carrier--Delta...also a hint at where they see their future.

Third point--when traffic slows in the winter, and yields decrease--they can easily take their unbalanced fleet and charter out a bunch of 737s to vacation carriers for the winter months...guaranteed flat fee profit. I'm guessing they're going to work more metal on those routes this winter with Skyservice having failed.

My point? It's bad news...yes...but it's at least 50% plain, old-fashioned circumstance.

[urban_planner]

Very Well said fast cars.

[SteelTown]

Airport area expansion plans costly
Hamilton would have to hike industrial development charges across the city

July 05, 2010
Meredith Macleod
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/801765

The city is predicting the future employment district around Hamilton's airport will pay off directly with 24,360 jobs -- and $66 million in yearly tax revenue -- when it's fully developed in 2031.

But building the roads, sewers and other infrastructure needed to develop the 1,173-hectare parcel the city has dubbed the Airport Employment Growth District (AEGD), could mean the city has to make the tough call to hike industrial development charges across Hamilton, according to a report going to council committee today.

It's projected that the development's infrastructure would cost about $351 million -- $115 million of which would be paid directly by developers, with the remaining $194 million through development charges.

But that leaves $42 million that isn't recoverable through development charges.

As well, between 2011 and 2031, it's projected that the city will lose revenue of $185 million in the aerotropolis due to the reduced development charge and another $46 million from water and wastewater subsidies.

City staff will bring some options to council aimed at reducing the municipality's financial risk.

Most controversially, that would include raising the industrial development charge from the current subsidized rate of $6.65 per square foot to the full $19.80 needed to cover growth and infrastructure.

That is sure to raise the ire of developers and lead to questions about whether that will discourage just the sort of industrial development the city needs to make the aerotropolis plan fly.

The city now has the lowest industrial development charges of area municipalities surveyed for the report.

The report envisions lands being available for development in 2014 and that about 56 per cent of the parcel would be "absorbed" by 2031.

The consultants recommend a "private-sector driven approach to developing the AEGD."

The consultants project the average land value for vacant serviced land in the aerotropolis would be in the $250,000 to $300,000 per acre range.

That's less than the average of $400,000 in Burlington and $800,000 in Mississauga, but more than what is demanded in Brantford, London, Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo and Guelph.

The consultants point out that a growing shortage of available industrial land on the western and northern ends of the GTA will enhance Hamilton's potential.

The 97-page financial and marketing report by consultants Watson and Associates Economists Ltd. also finds:

* Direct, spinoff and indirect jobs from the aerotropolis could ultimately top 63,600.

* The AEGD offers a developable area of "critical mass" at competitive prices.

* Proximity of Hamilton airport is a significant asset.

* Other area major airports -- including Pearson and Buffalo -- have limited off-site employment land, which enhances Hamilton's position even further states the report.

* There is competition from other industrial/business parks in the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

* There is significant vacant land in the Ancaster Business Park and the North Glanbrook Business Park.

* Development potential would be concentrated in advanced manufacturing, warehousing, transportation and logistics, business services and accommodation and food services.

* The aerotropolis would generate more than 130,335 person years of construction employment or 4,000 to 6,500 jobs over 20 years.

[SteelTown]

Councillors weighing report on selling Hamilton airport

July 14, 2010
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Business/article/807215

A report examining the sale of Hamilton International Airport has been presented to city councillors.

It was prepared by city staff after council, led by Councillor Chad Collins, voted in January to investigate the ramifications of a potential sale.

A number of councillors indicated at the time they would not support a sale, but Collins pushed forward with exploring selling the airport by 2012 and using the proceeds for city infrastructure.

The staff report also looks into continuing the lease with TradePort International and the city directly taking over airport operations.

Staff recommended maintaining the lease, according to some councillors who have seen the confidential document.

The report was on the agenda of a committee of the whole meeting last week and was received without debate because Collins is on vacation.

The city has owned the airport since 1994. Tradeport signed its 40-year lease with the city in 1996.