[Woodbridge_Heights]

I was thinking about potential destinations. Obviously the big markets are the most appealing, both for demand and connections to other airlines. So, NY, CHI, WAS, ATL, LA, VAN, MTL, MIA, VAN, SF. Plus other smaller or leisure markets WIN, CGY, LV, BOS, PHI, HFX, SEA and the typical sun destinations CUN, Punta Cana, Cuba.

If Porter's E jets have the legs and they see a market there. There's a couple dozen destinations to serve. However Porter's branding to me seems more up scale, and I wonder if the Hamilton market will pay Porter's prices or if they primarily purchase based on price.

 

[Mihairokov]

All of those routes have huge numbers of existing flights going into the GTA (NYC has over 50 daily flights to Toronto right now!) - taking a few of those flights worth of demand and shifting them to Hamilton is probably a relatively safe business bet.

Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax would seem like safe bets, as someone who doesn't have any inside insight whatsoever.

However Porter's branding to me seems more up scale, and I wonder if the Hamilton market will pay Porter's prices or if they primarily purchase based on price.

I don't believe Porter's prices are any different from AC or WestJet's, and oftentimes I find them to be lower than their competitors. The branding might imply something higher but I don't think that bears out into pricing.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax would seem like safe bets, as someone who doesn't have any inside insight whatsoever.

I don't believe Porter's prices are any different from AC or WestJet's, and oftentimes I find them to be lower than their competitors. The branding might imply something higher but I don't think that bears out into pricing.

My thinking was if HSR were in place. In which case Ham-Ott is better served by HSR. Ham-Mtl though is at the threshold where air travel becomes competitive, not to mention. Plus YUL has more international connections than YOW does.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Ryanair?!

Ryanair has been very open that they have no plans for NA routes, IIRC.

 

[Kyle Campbell]

My thinking was if HSR were in place. In which case Ham-Ott is better served by HSR. Ham-Mtl though is at the threshold where air travel becomes competitive, not to mention. Plus YUL has more international connections than YOW does.

True, but Ottawa is now home to Porter's maintenance base and is their newest hub. Ottawa's new airport CEO is even talking terminal expansion, so YHM to YOW is still somewhat likely. Then again, I'm not sure why you'd want to fly to Ottawa to connect, when you could make that same flight direct from Pearson, and there's not a huge travel demand otherwise betweeen those two airports.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Depends on what you view YHM's catchment as.

Porter got it's start going to YTZ, which at the time nobody thought was a viable passenger airport, and transforming it with a niche service which was the "I hate pearson" airport.

YHM with a few terminal upgrades could theoretically serve that same purpose for the western GTA, with the bonus of 24 hour operations and the ability to operate jets.

YHM with the right service offers could, I think, pull passengers from as far east as Oakville and all of Southern Ontario. Why deal with Pearson if you can fly much more pleasantly out of YHM? There are probably a solid 2+ million in it's potential catchment area.

YHMs problem has always been connectivity - Porter would need to run some sort of shuttle service from Aldershot I think, and it is finally getting a direct freeway connection which should make things easier.. We'll have to see.

 

[FF407]

There isn't much difference between the road access they have now vs once highway 6 is widened. We're talking a stoplight and a half. Every time I'm.on that road now everyone is driving 100km/h. We are talking a difference of a few minutes.

Having said that if this is Porter. I'm expecting YHZ,YUL,YWG,YEG,YVR maybe YOW.

If it's really aggressive maybe BOS,EWR,LAS and MDW perhaps a few Florida destinations.

I have a contact at the airport who was told by his supervisor that would bring Pre-covid passenger numbers.

If this is indeed Porter it will be kind of nuts that they would have operations from 3 GTA airports. Unless they leave the highly competitive YYZ altogether.

 

[Kyle Campbell]

There isn't much difference between the raid access they have now vs once highway 6 is widened. We're talking a stoplight and a half. Every time I'm.on that road now everyone is driving 100km/h. We are talking a difference of a few minutes.

Having said that if this is Porter. I'm expecting YHZ,YUL,YWG,YEG,YVR maybe YOW.

If it's really aggressive maybe BOS,EWR,LAS and MDW perhaps a few Florida destinations.

I have a contact at the airport who was told by his supervisor that would bring Pre-covid passenger numbers.

If this is indeed Porter it will be kind of nuts that they would have operations from 3 GTA airports. Unless they leave the highly competitive YYZ altogether.

Speaking of competitive airports, any chance that conditions south of the border might reduce the attractiveness of driving to Buffalo for flights? That might work in Hamilton's favour

 

[ownthesky]

Depends on what you view YHM's catchment as.

Porter got it's start going to YTZ, which at the time nobody thought was a viable passenger airport, and transforming it with a niche service which was the "I hate pearson" airport.

YHM with a few terminal upgrades could theoretically serve that same purpose for the western GTA, with the bonus of 24 hour operations and the ability to operate jets.

YHM with the right service offers could, I think, pull passengers from as far east as Oakville and all of Southern Ontario. Why deal with Pearson if you can fly much more pleasantly out of YHM? There are probably a solid 2+ million in it's potential catchment area.

YHMs problem has always been connectivity - Porter would need to run some sort of shuttle service from Aldershot I think, and it is finally getting a direct freeway connection which should make things easier.. We'll have to see.

Hamilton will one day get serious about the A line from West Harbour on Lakeshore West to the airport, but god knows how many decades that'll take given the B line LRT has been stuck in a political quagmire for most of my life.

 

[innsertnamehere]

Hamilton will one day get serious about the A line from West Harbour on Lakeshore West to the airport, but god knows how many decades that'll take given the B line LRT has been stuck in a political quagmire for most of my life.

A line is effectively useless for airline carriers anyway beyond maybe getting their staff to the airport.

The Airport needs to draw from a very wide audience to be viable - and that means regional transit.

Pearson works as you can take a GO bus to it from basically anywhere in the GTA, but even then, about 80-90% of customers still drive or are driven.

Hamilton really needs *road* connectivity to work, which is why the Highway 6 twinning matters. Yes, Highway 6 right now isn't particularly terrible, but it being a full freeway will make connections a few minutes faster and much more consistant. Having direct freeway access for whatever reason has a large phycological effect on perceived ease of access, and every minute you can cut off the google maps travel time makes the airport much more accessible for more people.

Hopefully it can more easily enable shuttle services as well.

 

[Tim MacDonald]

Porter got its start at YTZ because YTZ had previously proven through Nick Pappalardo's City Express that there was a demand for downtown service to Newark, Ottawa and Montreal in the late 1970s and early 1980s using Dash 7s and Dash 8s. Air Ontario filled the void when City Express went bankrupt.

If porter were to come to YHM, I can't see them running more than a couple of summer seasonal domestics. It's an odd choice for them since they already have themselves a robust YYZ operation.

Guys, this is not a viable origin and destination traffic type airport. It would make a great location for a lot of connecting traffic to pass through if someone wanted to invest a ton of dough on a terminal. Who knows? Maybe this is Porter's play.

 

[FF407]

Porter got its start at YTZ because YTZ had previously proven through Nick Pappalardo's City Express that there was a demand for downtown service to Newark, Ottawa and Montreal in the late 1970s and early 1980s using Dash 7s and Dash 8s. Air Ontario filled the void when City Express went bankrupt.

If porter were to come to YHM, I can't see them running more than a couple of summer seasonal domestics. It's an odd choice for them since they already have themselves a robust YYZ operation.

Guys, this is not a viable origin and destination traffic type airport. It would make a great location for a lot of connecting traffic to pass through if someone wanted to invest a ton of dough on a terminal. Who knows? Maybe this is Porter's play.

A source who works at the airport that tells me that whoever is coming will be more than a few summer seasonals. He's been told by his supervisor they anticipate Pre-Covid pax numbers (pushing a million).Also this announcement brings terminal expansion with it so I am being told.

 

[Jonny5]

A source who works at the airport that tells me that whoever is coming will be more than a few summer seasonals. He's been told by his supervisor they anticipate Pre-Covid pax numbers (pushing a million).Also this announcement brings terminal expansion with it so I am being told.

Is terminal expansion a prerequisite though? I'm expecting that to be a multi-year project.

 

[FF407]

Is terminal expansion a prerequisite though? I'm expecting that to be a multi-year project.

IL maybe not a prerequisite in the sense the service won't start until completed. I'm thinking whoever it is will start with some flights and build on it once the construction finished up. This is just a guess though.

 

[rdaner]

I wonder if the ambitious plans for Niagara Falls are making this airport more important as it is the closest large facility? I’m guessing 40 mins door to door.