[ShonTron]

Presser:

Porter Airlines Landing in Hamilton With Four Routes

Porter Airlines is bringing significant new air service to Hamilton, with four routes launching in June. John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport (YHM) w...

www.businesswire.com

This has little chance of long term success.

The departure and arrival times are less than ideal. I would only consider flying out of Hamilton if there were multiple daily flights.

 

[innsertnamehere]

YHM here will be trying to capture the southwestern Ontario market, not the GTA. Hamilton, Niagara, London, Brantford, Burlington, Oakville, etc. Will probably also draw numbers from the GTA for those who want to avoid YYZ and are willing to drive a bit for that.

Ultimately it's 4 flights a day to start as well, serving a market with about 1.5-2 million people. It's pretty reserved.

With better access to YHM with a Highway 6 freeway and an upgraded airport terminal, I could see more people choosing it.

 

[leftfieldto]

I'd rather pay $50 extra to not have to suffer YYZ and fly out of the island.

I don't think their plan would be to attract customers from downtown Toronto or the eastern GTA. There's a significant number of people for which Hamilton is closer - without even getting into the traffic.

And so would people from K/W/Cambridge, Guelph, Brantford, Woodstock, St. Catharines.....plus Hamilton itself. Looking at a reasonable catchement of 2.5 million or so, noticeably bigger that most of the proposed destinations. This could be quite viable, with proper foresight.

 

[Tim MacDonald]

This is summer seasonal at best and it is likely some, if not all, of the routes will quietly end early to mid September regardless of how it is loaded into the sked. There is no secret sauce here and not a highway, high speed rail, or anything else will ever make a difference. It is not viable for local traffic and nothing more than a pathway to horrendous operating losses. I guess those 60 tails or whatever it is now have to go somewhere. The pax terminal ramp at YHM is littered with the ghosts of past operators. This will be no different.

 

[Tim MacDonald]

The idea should be to try to capture as much of the Western GTAH market as they can. It's unlikely that passengers coming from East of YYZ are going to choose YHM unless the price is much lower. Oakville, Burlington, Kitchener, Hamilton, etc would have an easier commute to YHM compared to YYZ.

YVR/YYC/YEG/YHZ are good initial choices for service. As mentioned above I'd hope for service to large us markets as well (like NYC, CHI, ATL, LA, MIA, WAS). I'm cautiously optimistic about this. After all WestJet started out at YHM initially and moved to YYZ as quickly as they could. YOW and YUL are notable absences though Porter provides ample service from YTZ/YYZ and I'm not sure how much demand there is for YHM-YOW/YUL service.

***EDIT***

Looks like Porter is scheduled to begin receiving 25 more E2 aircraft in 2025. So they may be waiting for more airframes to come in before adding additional flights. Also according to Plane Spotters they do have 4 E2's currently parked at YOW that can be deployed at YHM.

I think those tails at YOW are awaiting engines.

 

[Branden Simon]

New renderings has been released with a website https://flyhamilton.ca/travel-refreshed/

That’s including Jet bridges along with Enhanced facade, curbside, and terminal upgrades.

 

[Tim MacDonald]

So what will it be, 2 narrowbody gates and maybe 1 dreamliner size gate?

 

[innsertnamehere]

This is summer seasonal at best and it is likely some, if not all, of the routes will quietly end early to mid September regardless of how it is loaded into the sked. There is no secret sauce here and not a highway, high speed rail, or anything else will ever make a difference. It is not viable for local traffic and nothing more than a pathway to horrendous operating losses. I guess those 60 tails or whatever it is now have to go somewhere. The pax terminal ramp at YHM is littered with the ghosts of past operators. This will be no different.

I mean I guess we'll see. YTZ was a revolving door as well until it.. wasn't.

YHM's a terrible user experience right now in general, honestly one of the worst airports in the country. Getting some upgrades to it will hopefully help.

It's four flights a day so I can't see it being more than 1-3 jetways.

 

[JakeLRS]

I read that there was a render with jetbridges but I can't find them anywhere.

Nonetheless, we're finally getting jetbridges.

 

[Tim MacDonald]

YTZ worked because there was always a market for a downtown market. Porter capitalized on building a modern terminal, with exclusivity until the air ontario lawsuit, and provided good service to key airports. Victor Pappalardo's operation (City Express) always felt a little Buffalo Airways like. I flew Porter back in 2008 to Halifax and back on the Q400 and loved it.

I'm eager to try Porter's E295s and will fly them the next time I am flying within North America. I want them to succeed but this is pure madness other than summer seasonal.

 

[KingJames]

Remember that Westjet did very well at YHM, pushing annual volumes for the airport towards the million passenger mark. Pretty sure it's a reasonable viable market, and will work well for those companies willing to make a commitment. I do think that YYZ has acted like an 800lb gorilla on the Hamilton market.

The addition of skybridges is a game changer for the airport, and along with Hwy 6 widening to the 403, just layers the ease of using YHM.

 

[JakeLRS]

This will likely get more crowded as we get closer to summer!

EDIT: YYC is 6x weekly.

 

[JakeLRS]

Here is the press announcement:

Porter CEO mentions that this is the first time Porter is announcing this many new routes from a new airport.
Porter believes more routes from Hamilton. "This is a start of a route network". In order to get their, YHM area needs to step up and use the service.

"Make Hamilton your first choice when flying within our network" - Michael Deluce, Porter CEO

 

[Tim MacDonald]

Remember that Westjet did very well at YHM, pushing annual volumes for the airport towards the million passenger mark. Pretty sure it's a reasonable viable market, and will work well for those companies willing to make a commitment. I do think that YYZ has acted like an 800lb gorilla on the Hamilton market.

The addition of skybridges is a game changer for the airport, and along with Hwy 6 widening to the 403, just layers the ease of using YHM.

Clealy they didn't. If westjet truly did well, they would be flying more than a single daily kick off flight to feed their hub in Calgary.

 

[KingJames]

Clealy they didn't. If westjet truly did well, they would be flying more than a single daily kick off flight to feed their hub in Calgary.

Not sure if you are just trolling here Tim, but the numbers through the years below to me suggest that there has been demand with almost nothing thrown at customer experience (maybe a coat of paint and some extra paved parking). Westjet came in and grew the numbers, then they split for YYZ which they had no presence, then they came back with Swoop to grow them again. Westjet retreat to the West in 2024 was not a Hamilton thing, nor was the folding of the Swoop sub brand.

PASSENGER Loads from Wikipedia

John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org