The announcement is another of a rapid decline in domestic flight options out of Hamilton Airport in recent years. Photo Credit: West Jet/X.
There will be less options for air travel at Hamilton’s John C. Munro International Airport (YHM) with WestJet recently announcing that they are suspending their flights to Atlantic Canada as of July 1 and reducing their service to Orlando, Florida.
The airline had been operating routes between Hamilton and Halifax, Nova Scotia as well as St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
WestJet spokesperson Madison Kruger said in a statement, “The decision to remove service is never taken lightly and we understand this is disappointing news for our guests and the community of Hamilton and sincerely apologize for the impact this may have.”
“We have provided our guests with as much advance notice as possible either directly, or through their travel agent. Impacted guests will be provided with a refund to their original form of payment.”
Despite the news, a statement from Hamilton Airport remained optimistic.
“While the Hamilton region has a proven history for affordable passenger travel, it is clear that passenger travel remains volatile, particularly for secondary airports in larger catchments, such as Hamilton International,” the statement read.
“The airport has effectively managed volatility in its business for more than 20 years and will continue to do so well into the future.”
After July 1, the only regular domestic route out of Hamilton Airport will be WestJet’s flights to Calgary, Alberta.
From Calgary, air passengers can connect to other destinations.
The announcement is another of a rapid decline in domestic flight options out of Hamilton Airport in recent years.
Low-cost airline Swoop was flying out of Hamilton to Abbotsford, Charlottetown, Deer Lake, Edmonton, Halifax, Moncton, St. John’s, and Winnipeg domestically in addition to several international locations before they shut down in Fall 2023.
Lynx Air, another low-cost airline, started flying out of Hamilton to Calgary, Halifax, and Vancouver in 2022 but shut down in February 2024.
Nevertheless, Hamilton Airport recently announced that they saw “continued growth” in passenger air travel in 2023 when 820,011 passengers used the airport.
That number was the second highest in the airport’s history, trailing only 2019, before the pandemic, where 955,000 passengers used the airport.
The other major airline providing service out of Hamilton Airport right now is Play Airlines which operates flights to Europe.
Play has expanded from 26 to 38 destinations, although all flights include stopovers of varying lengths in Iceland.
The airport also continues to see considerable cargo traffic from shipping companies such as Amazon, Canada Post, Cargojet, DHL, Purolator, Prime Air, and UPS as the largest domestic overnight express cargo airport and the third largest cargo freight airport in Canada.
The airport is also undergoing a $47 million project to handle increased cargo operations.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
