Hamilton Airport is planning to expand in the coming years, and hopes to attract some US-bound/incoming traffic, according to a report in this morning's Toronto Star. Operated by TradePort International, which in turn is partly owned by the folks who own YVR and the Laborers' International Union of NAmerica [sorry about that, FlyerAl], plans call for investing $22m in a new passenger terminal which would be 10-times the size of the current one. $13 million has already been spent upgrading the current terminal facility to handle the arrival and increased traffic generated by WestJet.

The company forecasts significant passenger growth over the next five years, moving from the current 553K passengers to five million. [For comparison, YYZ handled 28 million passengers in 2001.]

WestJet plans call for increasing service to more cities in central and eastern Canada from this hub, capitalizing on the 2+ million population base that lies west of Oakville, east to Niagara Falls, and northward to London.

You'd think that Jet Blue, Southwest, Air Tran et al, could do very well from here...if you've flown from BUF recently, all you see are Canadian passports.

But then you'd need both Canadian and US immigration/customs facilities (maybe there are Canadians there already).

I was actually going to post the opposite, while YHM may do well as a domestic hub, I wonder if they could ever do well transborder, since most of their target audience is also close to BUF.

andrew

There are Canadian Customs facilities at YHM. Up until a year ago, US Airways Express offered daily YHM-PIT service since 1988.

If I'm not mistaken, there are some charter flights to southern destinations during the winter travel season.

I don't think AirTran, etc. would want to serve YHM given the excess government taxes and fees for transborder flying.

Other airlines that have come and gone include CO (YHM-CLE), NW (YHM-DTW), NX <remember them?> (YHM-LGW), Greyhound Air (YHM-YWG), Canadian Partner (YHM-YOW, YHM-YUL), AvAtlantic (YHM-LAS)

The only "excess" government fees and taxes specifically imposed for travelling transborder come from the US government, not ours. There are no additional Canadian government charges imposed on transborder or international trips than are charged to domestic ones, albeit the security inspection fee on the return segment is actually much less than the $12 imposed on the outgoing segment. So in this particular case, blame Washington, not Ottawa, FlyerAl!

Another benefit YHM has over most other airports in Canada or the US is its current lack of a facility fee tacked onto the cost of the ticket. But since the YVR folks are running the place, it can only be a matter of time: Hmmm $10x5million...