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Air Canada launches flights between Hamilton and Montreal


Lakelad

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Air Canada launches the only twice daily non-stop flights between Hamilton, Ontario and Montreal

MONTREAL, Feb. 3, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada announced today it will launch new, year-round Air Canada Express service between Hamilton and Montreal. The new non-stop, daily flights reestablish Air Canada's presence in Hamilton by providing the only service between these two cities as well as offering a schedule that meets the needs of both local and connecting passengers. Flights are timed to offer convenient connections to/from Atlantic Canada including Halifax and St. John's, and to Europe including Rome, Geneva, Barcelona, Paris, and Lyon.

"Located in the heart of the populous Golden Horseshoe of Southern Ontario, Hamilton is a convenient departure and arrival point for the business community as well as tourists, visiting friends and relatives," said Benjamin Smith, President of Passenger Airlines, Air Canada. "This is the only non-stop service between Hamilton and Montreal and is part of our strategy to increase and strengthen our presence in the Greater Toronto Area as well as in Montreal."

"We're thrilled with Air Canada's announcement to begin operating non-stop flights from Hamilton to Montreal this May," said Frank Scremin, President & CEO at John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport. "Montreal is one of the Airport's most requested destinations; not only is it an important business market but also a great getaway city, and we're extremely happy that passengers can now fly directly to Montreal from Hamilton."

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What is the reason to fly YHM YUL for AC? Do they see this as another way to fight the Porter monopoly at YTZ and also see extra capacity being added from Westjets announcement yesterday?

Definitely. The last airline to serve this route was Nordair. So it's been available for a few years now.

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I don't think there is any real traffic between these two cities, other than two CFL teams a couple of times a season.

I disagree, both civically and regionally. Hamilton is becoming another bedroom community for Toronto. Expanded GO service and reasonable housing prices are increasing the white collar population in Hamilton. A 20 minute drive heading away from the Big Smoke at 7am to an easy park through a small terminal has got to beat the who-knows-what-today's-traffic-will-be-but-I-have-to-plan-for-at least-90-minutes drive to YYZ and a minimum of another hour parking, going through YYZ security and walking for 5 minutes to your gate.

Considering they theoretically could pull all of the traffic from Fort Erie to Burlington, it has quite a wide draw. Most of the traffic, though, would come from the Hamilton/Burlington area. I have lots of friends and family in the Hamilton area and any chance they have to avoid YYZ would be more than welcome.

I don't think it could support a 737 operation and people on this route don't want to do it in a Dash or a Q but a small jet could easily be a great fit. Of course, if a second carrier enters the market, it will kill the service by taking away any profit that it generates.

The best part of this, IMO, is that Air Canada, instead of re-acting to someone else entering a domestic market, is actually being proactive.

Disappointing to see the comments in The Spec on-line, though. The trolls (who probably have never even been to Montreal), instead of being happy for more service at their airport, are trashing Air Canada.

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Nordair offered two daily YUL-YHM 737 flights starting back in the late 60's. During that regulated era it did so poorly it eventually became an F227 route. ND operated it at loss most days but wouldn't give up its only southern scheduled route. As others have mentioned, Ontario Express had smaller turbo-prop service for a few years in the late 80's.

No one has really ever made this route work. There is no significant business or leisure travel between these two cities. Hamilton has a history of not really supporting its regional airport. And no matter what growth has occurred in the Golden Horseshoe or how unpredictable the highway traffic, YYZ is just more convenient for any international travel. Why you would fly in a some kind of RJ only to switch into something larger for an overseas/international destination adding extra travel time plus all the issues of making a connecting flight?

Sorry, not being a "Debbie-downer", but I see this announcement as some Vp's anti-Porter plan.

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And anyone who thinks the Hamilton Airport is a Hamilton Airport, is sadly mistaken. It's actually almost half way to Brantford, and its population of less than 100,000. It's almost faster to drive from downtown Burlington to Pearson than to go to Munro. With the limited frequency out of the airport, it's a tough sell versus Pearson.

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CYHM is convenient for Hamilton and surrounding area residents but no one else. Offering one domestic destination out of CYHM with limited overseas connections is also going to work against the route.

This route has been tried several times over the past 30 years and each time was abandoned. AC would almost be better served to offer flights from YHM-YYZ (where YYZ is not the final destination) in order to siphon the traffic in to its biggest hub while offering the YHM customers the benefits of the proximity of the CYHM airport and associated terminal/parking arrangements.

I doubt this is directed at affecting Porter unless there are a lot of Porter passengers taking the GO Train from Aldershot (free parking) to Union Station,

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