When I started working at Hamilton International Airport, I hadn’t flown from the Airport or travelled on their biggest provider of passenger flights, WestJet.  This weekend, I had the chance to do both and get some first hand experience of what I’m trying to convince airlines and passengers are the advantages to flying from a secondary airport like Hamilton.

I had some meetings in Vancouver on Monday and Tuesday so decided to fly out a few days early to visit with my brother and his family, go to a Paralympic sledge hockey game and see the Olympic cauldron.  This meant working all day on Friday before taking the WestJet 5:45pm flight to Calgary and connecting to a Vancouver flight, arriving at 11.30pm Pacific time.

Most people who have flown from Southern Ontario have likely gone through Pearson and suffered the unpredictable traffic (heaven forbid there is an accident on the 401 in the hour you are trying to get to the airport!), the long lines to check-in, the throngs of people waiting to be thoroughly searched at security before walking for an eternity or longer to the gate.

I am delighted to say that Hamilton Airport is nothing like that.

I have walked through the Airport many times since starting my new job so I had a pretty good idea of the layout and what the experience could be like.  I’d also been asking everyone I met with for the past 5 weeks if they had flown from Hamilton and what they thought of their experience.  The response was overwhelmingly positive with most people saying that it was simple to go through, easy to pick up  friends and family flying in and it was FRIENDLY.  Yes, FRIENDLY…. Even the security staff were FRIENDLY!

Having been manhandled by overly officious security and all but ignored by disgruntled check-in staff at some of the finest airports in both North America and Europe, I was sceptical.  But guess what…?  The staff at Hamilton were F-R-I-E-N-D-L-Y!!!!

I’d already checked-in online and printed my boarding passes so headed straight from the office to the terminal and the bag drop – 8 minutes.  Walk to security – 2 minutes.  Security screening – 5 minutes, including the security officer handing me a plastic bag in which to put my liquids in (sans recrimination and disappointed ‘tut’s) as I’d forgotten I had some moisturizer in my carry-on.  Once sitting in the departure lounge, I treated myself to a donut (having lived out of Canada for the last decade means that I’m a sucker for a Tim Horton’s chocolate glazed piece of heaven), relaxed and sent several “I can’t believe how easy it was” emails from my Blackberry to friends and family who were curious about how the Hamilton experience would go (we’re a strange bunch who enjoy sharing such things).

From what I’ve now seen first hand (and what I no doubt will experience again), I will be avoiding Pearson when I can.  Why stress when I can get the same level of service, if not better, and start my trip calm and relaxed??  I can only hope that more and more people from the area become devoted users and, better still, tell their friends about the Pearson alternative.

Oh, and for the record, Canada beat Sweden 10-1 in sledge hockey.

Karen Medweth

Director, Marketing