Hamilton International Airport

[The Gore]

Flew A/C. YHM to YUL over the weekend - great flight!
Flight to Monteal was full.
Return flight to The Hammer was overbooked, A/C was offering $800 to give up seat.

[urban_planner]

This is fantastic. I think a lot of this has to do with the way the view of Hamilton is changing. More people are getting interested in the city. Lets hope it keeps up. Maybe see some more Air Canada flights at YHM.

[LikeHamilton]

newleaf is starting Orlando, Melbourne Florida (MLB).

http://www.mlbair.com/

The direct service from Hamilton will begin on January
15th and run through to the end of April, with a possible
schedule extension.

Fares start at $198. CND taxes and fees included.

YHM 8:00 am MLB 10:44 am
MLB 11:44 am YHM 2:47 pm

Porter also flies here.

[SteelTown]

• Video Link

[SteelTown]

NewLeaf will fly passengers from Hamilton to Florida this winter

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilt...nter-1.3854055

Hamilton's newest low-cost air carrier is offering new flights to Florida this winter.

Newleaf and Flair Airlines will fly from Hamilton to Orlando and Melbourne, Fla. The flights will run from Jan. 15 to the end of April, but the company may extend the schedule.

Flights from Hamilton to Florida were always a goal, said Jim Young, NewLeaf president and CEO. And the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport is happy too.

"Florida is a highly demanded destination for our passengers," said Vijay Bathija, president and CEO of the airport, in a media release Wednesday.

The more flights NewLeaf adds, the better for airport officials anxious to boost passenger flight numbers out of Hamilton.

Passenger numbers have fallen short of expectations over the years, drawing frustration from city councillors. But this August, months after NewLeaf announced its launch, those numbers started to turn around.

In 2015, the airport saw 312,839 passenger flights, down from 332,378 in 2014 and 341,470 in 2013. In August, Bathija told council earlier this year, they shot ahead of last year's numbers.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by drpgq

This is sort of good, but I wonder if the rational thing is for people to fly New Leaf rather than WestJet, since if New Leaf dies, WestJet will promptly drop these new flights.

No surprise WestJet is going to try to drive them out. Between that and the other competition getting started things may be rough for New Leaf.

But if the overall numbers are that good, it shows (again) that there is a market for air travel out of YHM so hopefully that's not forgotten if these low-cost carriers don't fly in the medium-longer term.

[urban_planner]

I faced booked with Jetlines Canada they other to see if they were still planning YHM. They announce they were going into YKF so I was interested to see if YHM was also still planned. They said yes. Personally I think the flight will be interesting. they could try and beat out new leaf using the fact they fly their own planes instead of leasing like New Leaf does.

On another note the first Cargojet/Air Canada Cargo flight left went out and back to Frankfurt.

its interesting seeing the partnership with YHM and Air Canada increasing.

[drpgq]

Yeah I wonder when AC adds back Hamilton to Ottawa. Could help fill up their flights to London and Frankfurt. Plus area MPs would probably use it a ton.

[LikeHamilton]

YHM is expecting close to 4000 passengers on December 23rd. It will be their busiest day of the year. There will be 30 flights that day. Not sure of the break down with flights in and out. I know that there will be 2 flights are starting with the plane from the previous day and 2 are ending the day staying overnight. 1 plane will be ferried in for a flight. 4 of the flights will be on 50 seaters.

If they could do this daily for a year, they would do about 1.46 million passengers a year. The next day they are doing 26 flights.

In January there are days, Friday to Monday (Weekends) where they are doing 20 to 30 flights a day. Come February they get busier with more flights including First Air flying for Celebrity Cruises.

[urban_planner]

30 flights where did you get that information? Something doesn't sound right about that. The most they have in a single day now is 10. I'm not doubting you I just would like more details.

[urban_planner]

I guess if they include inbound and outbound it would only be an extra 5 flights which seems plausible.

[LikeHamilton]

The 4000 comes from the twitter site of the "YHM Director, Ops". The rest from other sources. I will get what I can of the projected flights that day.

[LikeHamilton]

Originally Posted by urban_planner

30 flights where did you get that information? Something doesn't sound right about that. The most they have in a single day now is 10. I'm not doubting you I just would like more details.

It’s the Christmas rush! Both WestJet and newleaf are adding Calgary flights that day. New leaf will be flying to all of their destination from Hamilton (YHM). Add in Air Canada, Sunwing and Air Transat and you will have a busy day. I found out it will be 26 flights that day between arrivals and departures.


WestJet – 2 round trips to Calgary
Air Canada – 2 round trips to Montreal
Air Transit - Puerto Plata and Cancun
Sunwing - Punta Cana
Newleaf – Halifax X 2, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Moncton.

Come mid-January WestJet will add Halifax daily, Edmonton - Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturdays and Winnipeg - Tuesday, Thursdays, Sunday. Newleaf will add Orlando.
It looks like newleaf will announce a second Florida destination this week from Hamilton. It will be Tampa.

Last winter Hamilton averaged 23 flights a week. This winter they will average 74 flights a week.

[LikeHamilton]

YHM's busiest day of the year!

Ramp about 9:10 this morning.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C0XfTEhXAAABntT.jpg

OOP's wrong thread. Re-posted in Hamilton International Airport thread.

[king10]

Originally Posted by LikeHamilton

YHM's busiest day of the year!

Ramp about 9:10 this morning.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C0XfTEhXAAABntT.jpg

Is that 6 passenger planes?

Would they ever consider adopting jetways. I know they're more expensive but are much more convenient.

[LikeHamilton]

YHM's busiest day of the year!

Ramp about 9:10 this morning.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C0XfTEhXAAABntT.jpg

[urban_planner]

I wonder what happened to the flights to Tampa?

[LikeHamilton]

Originally Posted by urban_planner

I wonder what happened to the flights to Tampa?

Don't know. This info came from newleaf staff. There has been talk of Flair getting 3 more plane soon. This route may need one of the new ones and maybe they are not ready yet. The flights where to start mid January.

[LikeHamilton]

So it has begun!

Who called it?

From newleaf today.

Dear Canadians,

Travelling in Canada is no easy feat. As Canadians, we face challenges that most countries do not have to contend with; ice, snow, extreme cold and for the longest time high air fares.

We want to say ‘thank you’ for booking your travel with NewLeaf Travel Company. Our number one goal is to deliver the lowest possible fares to you. We are successfully doing that, and it has impacted the price of airfare across the country in the markets we serve, dropping the fares by more than 23%.

NewLeaf, was on the path of offering low fares to exciting destinations like Phoenix-Mesa, and Melbourne-Orlando this year. When an airline in Canada found out that NewLeaf was servicing Phoenix-Mesa they too decided to follow our schedule. Within hours, of NewLeaf’s announcement this airline had also lowered its fares and offered service to an airport it had previously ignored for over a decade.

We are very sorry Alberta, but we cannot offer service to Phoenix-Mesa this year. This is a classic case of the big guy squishing the little guy so that the big guy can profit more…We sincerely hope and in fact challenge the other airlines to keep the fares low for you so that you can still travel south for the winter.

NewLeaf is also very sorry that this will affect our Florida route from Hamilton as well. NewLeaf will be postponing service to the sun for both Arizona and Florida.

NewLeaf is in the process of refunding every customer their ticket. Understandably, you are upset, and so are we as it was the last thing we had hoped to do; but I will be honest and state that because we are so committed to being here for the long run we must focus our efforts on our Canadian destinations.

As President & CEO, I deeply regret the news I just delivered. And as Jim Young, friend to friend - I am here to tell you that NewLeaf is committed to being Canada’s one and only provider of ultra low fares, you will see this when we release our spring/summer schedule in January. Your commitment, your support by purchasing your tickets is invaluable to us, and we thank you.

Happy New Year - Travel On Canada!

Sincerely,

Jim Young,
President & CEO
NewLeaf Travel Company

[Beedok]

Some issues for a new company are to be expected, but fingers crossed they stay in business overall.