Hamilton International Airport

[JakeLRS]

Looks like Norweigians Dublin-Hamilton service will not commence at all this summer. They have inflated all fares for the flights; likely to be cancelled in the coming days. I'm guessing the 737MAX played a role.

[king10]

Originally Posted by JakeLRS

Looks like Norweigians Dublin-Hamilton service will not commence at all this summer. They have inflated all fares for the flights; likely to be cancelled in the coming days. I'm guessing the 737MAX played a role.

Wow. That is terrible. There was so much fanfare behind this.

[LikeHamilton]

Originally Posted by JakeLRS

Looks like Norweigians Dublin-Hamilton service will not commence at all this summer. They have inflated all fares for the flights; likely to be cancelled in the coming days. I'm guessing the 737MAX played a role.

Maybe not. I hear that the loads are high in both directions and they are talking about using a B737-800's on the route. Norwegian owns 108 - B737-800's. They have been cutting back on their schedule on some other routes to gain some flight space. Norwegian has chartered other aircraft in the past to fulfill demand. The stop in sales and the price increase is to stop sales so if they reduce the schedule so they wont have as many passengers to accommodate.

According to YHM's twitter feed, on March 6th they had a celebration at the Aberdeen Tavern with Tourism Ireland and Norwegian for this route. And on March 14 they announced that on March 31, (www.megabus.com) will operate a daily motor coach service between downtown Toronto (Toronto Coach Terminal) and Hamilton International Airport. The price is $21 one-way. This service was requested by Norwegian and the start of this service is geared to Norwegian's schedule. They are expecting to add more times during the day and maybe other destinations. Both Norwegian and Swoop will be placing a link on their web pages so their passengers will be able to book the trip before they get here. Tickets will also be sold at the airport.

The grounding of the Max may slow down Swoops growth as they where to get 4 more aircraft this year from Westjet as 800's where freed up by new Max aircraft. Don't expect any new route (or very many) this year, just the fattening of the existing schedule to maximize the aircraft they have this summer.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1oqxswVYAAUwOd.jpg

[JakeLRS]

Originally Posted by LikeHamilton

Maybe not. I hear that the loads are high in both directions and they are talking about using a B737-800's on the route. Norwegian owns 108 - B737-800's. They have been cutting back on their schedule on some other routes to gain some flight space. Norwegian has chartered other aircraft in the past to fulfill demand. The stop in sales and the price increase is to stop sales so if they reduce the schedule so they wont have as many passengers to accommodate.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1oqxswVYAAUwOd.jpg

Nice to hear about the good loads, my main concern is Norwegian now showing one way flights for $1200 for ALL dates. I hope its just a temporary measure as they await for the software update.

If they do indeed try and go with the -800 aircraft, wouldn’t it need to
make a fuel stop somewhere in Greenland/Iceland tho?

[JakeLRS]

TheSpec did an article on this.

“Norwegian's website lists the March 31-to-April 29 flights as being sold out and has suddenly jacked up its one-way fares to about $1,200 for routes that are listed as still having seats. That's more than four times the $279 one-way fares (including taxes) that were advertised when the airline first announced the service in June 2018.

"The route is temporarily suspended because they are trying to reconfigure their whole fleet network plan," says Dina Carlucci, the director of marketing and communications for John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport.

"They are meeting to look at all their summer programs that have been impacted by the suspension because the suspension could last longer than any of us want it to," she said. "They are looking at options for us in terms of other aircraft types. However, that is based on other aircraft being available." “

https://www.thespec.com/news-story/9...ax-groundings/

[LikeHamilton]

Norwegian has 26 B737-Max 8's and 13 Max 9's. About 100 on order.

[HamAviMech]

Found this in aviation international news:

Norwegian used its fleet of new Boeing 737 Max 8s to launch low-cost transatlantic services from Dublin, Cork, and Shannon to New York Stewart International Airport (SWF) and Providence T. F. Green International Airport (PVD) over the past two years. It planned to start flying between Dublin and Hamilton Airport in Canada with a Max 8 starting March 31. The latter will go ahead as scheduled, but with an ETOPS-certified Boeing 737-800. The airline’s fleet contains several ETOPS-rated NGs, the spokesman said

[HamAviMech]

http://flyhamilton.ca/travel-advisor...march-25-2019/

[LikeHamilton]

The aircraft will use a lighter load (160 passengers) in order to get the range they need without doing a fuel stop.

[JakeLRS]

Originally Posted by LikeHamilton

The aircraft will use a lighter load (160 passengers) in order to get the range they need without doing a fuel stop.

Well, that's a relief.

Still, nothing bookable on Norweigians website until May, is it possible the flights in April are fully sold out?

[LikeHamilton]

Originally Posted by JakeLRS

Well, that's a relief.

Still, nothing bookable on Norweigians website until May, is it possible the flights in April are fully sold out?

The rumor was that they where close to sold out on a lot of flights. The consolidating of flights has cause most of the flights to be full for the B737-800.

From Norwegian

Travel information for Dublin-Hamilton customers

- Norwegian’s brand-new service from Dublin to Toronto’s Hamilton airport will operate as normal using a Boeing 737-800 from 31 March.
Customers booked on flights D8 1840 from Dublin to Hamilton and D8 1841 from Hamilton to Dublin will be able to travel on the airline’s newest route for the start of the summer season, four days per week.
Norwegian continues to temporarily withhold further sales of all routes operated by the 737 MAX to ensure the airline can meet customer expectations in light of the suspended operations of this aircraft.
The airline will provide further updates to customers booked to travel on affected routes beyond 10 April as Norwegian continues to work on operational plans to minimize inconvenience for customers.

These flights will continue to operate under a temporary schedule, but as from March 31, Norwegian will temporarily operate additional services from Dublin Airport using a Boeing 737-800 to cover other affected routes, including the launch of the new Canadian service.
The ETOPS-certified 737-800, which enables the aircraft to fly an efficient direct-routing, will operate the Hamilton to Dublin route, four times per week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The aircraft will also be used on flights between Dublin and Providence on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

About Norwegian
Norwegian is the world’s fifth largest low-cost airline and carried over 37 million passengers in 2018. The airline operates more than 500 routes to over 150 destinations in Europe, North Africa, Middle East, Thailand, Caribbean, North and South America. Norwegian has a fleet of more than 160 aircraft, with an average age of 3.8 years, making it one of the world’s youngest and “greenest” fleets.

From the Spec.com

Anders Lindström, a spokesperson for the low-cost carrier, said the route will use a 737 800 plane that the company was able to free up from its inventory. Flights will begin March 31 as planned.
Lindström said normal discounted ticket sales will resume shortly, but no confirmed date has been set.

[LikeHamilton]

They have graded the property for the larger of the two hangers for the new KF Aerospace project. A temporary parking lot has been built across the street and they are working on grading the the new large parking lot across from the present KF Aerospace building.

[king10]

Originally Posted by LikeHamilton

They have graded the property for the larger of the two hangers for the new KF Aerospace project. A temporary parking lot has been built across the street and they are working on grading the the new large parking lot across from the present KF Aerospace building.

Great to see this commencing so quickly.

[LikeHamilton]

Norwegian's web site is back up and selling low priced airfares until August. I suspect that it is because they are not sure if the Max will be back. They also show 8 flights out of YHM sold out and 37 inbound flights sold out. 11 in April, 24 of 26 in May sold out and 1 in June. They need a bigger plane or more days or both. They are also showing it back to daily service from mid September.

[SteelTown]

@flyyhm
https://twitter.com/flyyhm

[drpgq]

"PAUL WILSON: Hamilton International Airport — the secret is spreading, but more destinations please
Our little airport is not quite the secret it once was. It handled 725,000 passengers in 2018, 21 per cent more than the year before.

"Dina Carlucci, the airport's marketing director, says up to 25 per cent of the Dublin bookings are coming from New York state. The flights are cheap anyway — and because they're priced in Canadian dollars, they're a real bargain for Americans.

It's not all wins for HIA. Air Canada quit its run to Montreal three days ago. Carlucci says the airline seemed to be going after business travellers, and they often want hourly frequency. Two or three times a day won't cut it.

But she thinks targeting the leisure traveller to Montreal could pay off. "I would encourage other carriers to strongly consider that market."

Last fall HIA lost fledgling low-cost carrier Flair Air too. The Competition Bureau of Canada is now looking into whether WestJet's discount carrier Swoop used predatory pricing to squeeze Flair out.

WestJet flies daily to Calgary from Hamilton. And Swoop flies to Abbotsford, Edmonton, Halifax, Winnipeg. Its U.S. destinations are Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa Bay and Las Vegas. And beyond the U.S., along with Sunwing and Air Transat, there are flights to seven sun spots.

But HIA needs more destinations. Carlucci knows where people want to go. She says the airport regularly surveys passengers about that. And now there's a new method of reading public demand.

A couple of months ago, the airport installed six jumbo gum ball machines — the brainwave of local firm Laundry Design Works. Below the machines, the question is posed: "Where do you want to go next?" The choices, at 25 cents a vote: Ottawa, New York, Vancouver, London, Paris, Los Angeles. Apparently London is inching ahead on the gum gauge."

[ZTrade]

Originally Posted by drpgq

"Where do you want to go next?" The choices, at 25 cents a vote: Ottawa, New York, Vancouver, London, Paris, Los Angeles. Apparently London is inching ahead on the gum gauge."

I only read the gumball part first and thought, "sweet, gumball machines...LOL" but I kept reading and think that's a cool idea. My ranking would be:

1)New york
2)London
3)Paris
4)Vancouver
5)LA
6)Ottawa

[LikeHamilton]

So no summer start for Canada Jetlines. From a press release today.

As a result of the Company’s progress as well as the current status of financing initiatives, Jetlines has set a launch of commercial service targeted for December 17, 2019 using Vancouver (YVR) as Jetlines’ home airport.

As a result of this determination, Jetlines and AerCap have mutually agreed to terminate the leases for two Airbus A320 aircraft, and Jetlines has entered into a letter of intent with its partner, SmartLynx Airlines SIA, for the lease of two alternate Airbus A320 that will be available for delivery in Q4 2019 in line with the expected commencement of Jetlines’ operations. The two aircraft will have the same configuration as the AerCap aircraft, with 180 ACRO seats.

[King&James]

Originally Posted by LikeHamilton

So no summer start for Canada Jetlines. From a press release today.

Well at least we have a date! and they look to be a step further in financing

[NortheastWind]

Originally Posted by King&James

Well at least we have a date! and they look to be a step further in financing

When I worked for the airport I saw many dates and the promise of new airlines come and go. Don't hold your breath when it comes to the airline industry. You can only hope for the best.