Transcript: Airport Terminal Upgrade, New Flights Launched - Airport Sub-Committee - April 20, 2026 | Summary 280

Airport Terminal Upgrade, New Flights Launched - Airport Sub-Committee - April 20, 2026

Sound check 1 2 3. Sound check. 1 2 3. Good morning. As we have quorum present for today's meeting, I'd like to call this meeting of the airport subcommittee to order. A reminder that all electronic devices are to be switched to a non-audible function during committee meetings. May I please have a mover and second to approve the agenda as presented? Councelor Tatison. Councelor Wang. Any amendments from committee members to the agenda? Seeing none, show of hands, please, to approve. Thank you. Declarations of interest. Are there any declarations of interest? Okay. Moving on to the adoption of minutes. 5.1 March 27, 2025. Mover and second to adopt the minutes, please. Councelor Bey, Councelor Tatterson. Any discussion on the minutes? Seeing none, all in favor or opposed? That carries. Thank you. Items for information. Uh John C. Monroe International Airport update. I need a mover and second or first to extend the presentation time to 20 minutes. Councelor Tison, Councelor Bey, uh this will require an electronic vote. If you don't have any questions, please identify which way you're voting now. The vote will be up momentarily. Councelor Paul's is a thumbs up. Thank you. That vote carries seven to zero. Thank you. Um, at this time I'm going to call forward Peter Tong, the chief executive officer of Tradeport International Corporation, who is here to provide us with a presentation on the item. Peter, good morning. Welcome. Morning. Thank you. morning. Thank you. Um, for those of you I haven't had the pleasure to meet, my name is Peter Tong. I am the CEO of Tradeport uh International. I'm joined here this morning by a couple of my colleagues, Colleen Ryan, our director of marketing, communications, and guest experience, as well as Linda, um, who leads up our contracts and leads management. Um, before we get started, I just wanted to, uh, recognize one of our really important colleagues as well, Norman, David, actually two, um, as this will be, my understanding the last airport subcommittee meeting that, um, they will be joining us before their retirement. And so I just wanted to note and and make note that the airport has greatly appreciated the work that you both have done on the the the relationship that we have um managed and worked together to create value not only for the city but the broader region. uh we truly believe that the strength of the partnership is in in due big due part to your relationships that you've created and the rest of the team staff as well Sue and Norm um and Ray sorry um have done a great job on on working with us and continue to work with us. So again just wanted to extend our congratulations to you both as you enter this next phase of uh your chapter this next chapter. Uh today uh we got five areas of topics that we would like to cover and provide you with an update on. It's hard to believe that at this time last year the airport was under construction and we'll get into that in a second but really around terminal what's happened on the terminal over the last year passenger operations cargo operations airport development and then really around environmental sustainability and community. Please uh if you have any questions along the way u happy to take those or wait till the end. Uh so terminal enhancements as I mentioned last year we we kicked off in February with a big uh event and announcement that we were undergoing a multi-million dollar terminal renovation. at that point really just an announcement and some renderings of what was potential what what the potential of the airport would look like and it's hard to believe that in a 100 short days that we were able to transform the whole airport I don't know how many have had the opportunity to be through the airport over the last year or have flown through but it's significantly transformed as what you can see from the pictures of the before that we have in the top row the building the check-in area, the colors, the lime green, it was functional. But come June when we opened the terminal, you can see the significant improvements that were made, modernizing the terminal, welcoming new passengers into the terminal with the the nice wood accents and light bright lighting that we introduced into the terminal. Not only that, um the the announcement and the opening of the terminal coincided with Porter's launch last year with four destinations that they started with. So really it was about travel refreshed. And just to touch on a little bit further, uh, enhanced facade and curbside. This greets passengers once they come to the airport. A lot of bright lighting welcoming you from the very front. Once you drive into the the airport property, you can see that there's a whole new facade of the airport. We modernized the terminal, upgraded check-in, baggage claim, the departures, new mill work flooring, all that to bring in the regional colors and and the wood accents from the color. um from the region into the airport itself. We opened up a new screening area, opened that up to make it a lot more brighter for passengers as they go through uh security screening. On top of that, in in the fall in December, we opened the international arrivals as well as introducing new primary inspection kiosks and Nexus for the first time into the airport as well, Nexus kiosks. But the biggest highlight for 2025 was really the introduction as well of passenger boarding bridges. So we have two passenger boarding bridges that were uh introduced into the airport, a first time ever. And so that was wellreceived by passengers since those have been in operations. And I think for those of you that have traveled, it makes such a big difference in those winter months or even in the spring when it's raining that you don't have to go outside and you can be boarding your aircraft um covered and not have to be worried about the elements uh of the weather. So, as I mentioned earlier, Porter announced in February that they were going to enter the Hamilton market. They're the first airline that will serve all three uh airports in the greater Toronto Hamilton area. Billy Bishop, Toronto Pearson, and then Hamilton. As I mentioned, they started with four uh services from here going to Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, and Vancouver. The product is what everybody is familiar with and becoming accustomed to. It's an elevated economy product, no middle seats. And then come the fall, they introduced additional markets including Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and two to Mexico, Port of Viarda, and Cancun. And uh as of recently, they also announced in the summer service, which we'll get into in a second here, additional domestic services. The product has been very wellreceived and the passengers that have and guests that have flown through the airport are love the convenience not only of Hamilton itself but now the options as the the network and op options to fly out of Hamilton continue to grow. In addition to Porter, just wanted to highlight as well that we continue to have service from WestJet that serves Calgary on a regular basis, daily basis, as well as seasonal services to Puntaana and Cancun, as well as Air Canada landline, which has the charter bus service from Hamilton to Pearson from a passenger volume perspective as you can see here on this slide uh 2025 was marginally we'll call it above in terms of traffic versus 2024 and really the background that on on that is that in 2024 if you think of uh Swoop and WestJet they operated in the first part of the year and it was really in the second half of the year that they started to bring down their service and so complemented by that in 2025 we had the opposite where the first part of 2025 was just a daily service from WestJet and then Porter started in the second half. And so when you kind of add those two years together, you had one year where there was a carrier for the first part but not the second. And then last year we had Porter in the second but not in the first part. And so really we're very optimistic and as you can see and and and we'll get into in a second the amount of services that have been announced from Porter not only of the existing services but the new services that are coming. We're forecasting uh significant growth this year in 2026 versus where we ended up in 2025. Um, we continue to work very closely with all the all our partners and growing the the presence of Porter in the market through our marketing efforts. Uh, Colleen, as I mentioned earlier, continues to work closely with tourism, Invest Hamilton, the chamber, and the Hamilton YHM marketing alliance as well to continue to build awareness of all the new options and flying that is available out of Hamilton. Lastly, I just wanted to note there on passenger satisfaction is um what we've reported was 89% which is tremendous result for the experiences that passengers have going through our airport. That's up uh 2.4% from the previous year. As I mentioned earlier, here are the services that will be happening this year that have been announced. And I think I'd like to highlight a few of the new markets that have been introduced. Winnipeg and St. John's were announced earlier this year. And so with the St. John's announcement from Hamilton, somebody can fly literally coast to coast across Canada from St. John's all the way to Vancouver, which is the first for for the airport, which is a tremendous opportunity for uh the region to connect a passengers, guests across Canada and bring people into the region as well. The other notable markets that I want to highlight is Montreal and Ottawa. Porter recently announced those. Those will start in June with two times a day service on their turborop Q400-Q400. This is a really great announcement and it's been a long long time since the region has had service to these communities. And so one of the big components here is that we'll continue to work with Porter. As I mentioned earlier, uh the the partners that we have in the community to drive the services and awareness on these two markets, the success of this is going to be dependent on a lot of people using these services. Not only the two that I'm highlighting specifically, but from a business perspective, the schedule is tailored to these key markets where we know that a lot of business travelers are transiting to Pearson or to downtown even in some cases to to to get to these markets. But with the introduction of these services, um we really are hoping that passengers, community members will start to use these services so that they can continue to grow. Not only those routes, but everything else. I think one of the elements that we've seen over the years is carriers come and exit. Well, what Porter has done is very different in terms of the amount of flying and and destinations that they are offering, but also the investment that Porter has made into the community and their partnership as for example with the Hamilton Tiger Cats. And so one of the big components is for the community to start and continue to support the services that Porter has put in market. And I mentioned earlier, Westchet will continue to have their daily service to Calgary as well as landline Air Canada landline uh connecting through their global global network with uh five trips a day from here to Pearson. Now, just turning over to cargo operations. I think what you'll see here, I just wanted to highlight 750 million kilograms of cargo um moved through the airport in 2025. this is um more or less on track with 2024. And I think um when you look at the impact of last year and again this time last year when we were having conversations around the geopolitical environment, tariffs etc. Um that that had the impact on the traffic and the cargo activity to a degree over that time period. But the good news is that it's a we're at a fairly stable level of cargo activity and we anticipate that there will be um moderate growth in 2026 to this level of activity. And then just turning to the airport development, land development. As you may be aware here, we have the four areas, four quadrants of the airport that we break down and that we continue to uh work to develop and enhance. Um the northeast airport development, this is where latitude air ambulance opened last year and Cardo Bid Cardo Bid Carson, sorry, is in the final process of um finishing up their building or their first part of their expansion there. Um and we anticipate that to be opening um fairly soon in the next few months here. The south is really the 150 acres. We'll continue to work and and work with the city as well from uh not only servicing but working in with other partners as to trying to find an anchor to develop those lands as well as um the east and the west. One notable area there that you've talked uh you may have heard us talk about and I just want to highlight here is the radar lands. And so with the radar that's on those lands today, we're not able to develop that area in red. And so we continue to work with NAV Canada towards the uh movement of that. they have expressed that they are looking at and um exploring the possibilities and locations of where they could move that. And so we anticipate that that's likely a longer term project, but that will unlock. And so we'll continue to work with Nav Canada through that area there as well. And so again, just to recap, the areas that are still open for development are all highlighted here, but the notable ones are the 150 acres plot number nine that we have listed there. Um 2 A10 as well on the on the map on the west side of the airport as well as one available immediately 7C up at the top northeast corner there as well. And so we continue to have conversations on a regular basis with potential developers and partners that are looking at uh coming into the airport um to to develop the properties there. And then just from an investment perspective, just to recap, um 528 million to date, but specifically wanted to highlight in 2025, $23 million invested into the airport among all the projects that I mentioned earlier. One notable element that I want to touch on and we'll get into in a second as well around sustainability and the environment is we upgraded our fleet last year to electric vehicles. all fleet that are able to be uh converted to electric. We have converted we have seven um EVs, seven trucks that are being utilized today at the airport. And then in terms of for 2026, what developments are we looking at? We're go entering in and and in final processes of awarding um a contract to help us to redevelop runway 0624. So this is a significant development that will happen this year. We'll continue to work towards finalizing our storm water design which will be in place and ready by the fall/inter of 2027. And along the lines of the sustainability and environment, we have other u projects underway around design work for the terminal geothermal as well as a sitewide solar uh design. This combined with the geothermal work at our combined services building will significantly support our efforts towards net zero um by 2030. And as well as that, uh we we're always looking at opportunities to continue to enhance the guest experience. So, we're under um review right now of not only our parking infrastructure, the technology that supports our parking, but also within the terminal as well, how we can continue to improve the product uh and what we offer our our guests that are transiting in through the terminal. Lastly, I just wanted to highlight here a few of the environmental initiatives that we've taken, including our FODWAR. We do an annual tree planting at the Benbrook Cons conservation area. We're uh planting more than 200 trees to date that the airport supported. And one of these numbers here, this last one about our waste diversion, um 145 pounds of surplus food items have been uh donated to the community and another 428 pounds of um electronic waste diverted through to um local recycling centers. We've achieved uh level two accreditation of from the airport carbon accreditation program as well. I mentioned earlier um we've transitioned to an all electric fleet but where the heavy equipment uh snow plows and so on those continue to be um using diesel but we've transitioned to a renewable diesel uh wherever possible. And lastly, we remain fairly active in the community and working with the community through um events whether it be Liberty for Youth or the UPS um plane pull etc. As you could see there, the the team is very engaged and continues to support and work closely in the community. And um we host the annual Elevate Aviation and just so happened that this past week was their event this past year for for 2026 as well. And so highly successful engaging with uh the youth to give exposure to aviation and what a career in aviation could look like. And so with that, um, really we're very excited about 2025 as a transformational year, but looking forward to 2026. As I mentioned already, I think that the announcements that Porter has announced help significantly from a passenger perspective. cargo activity continues to be robust and um we're we're very excited about what the rest of the year looks like for the airport. Peter, thank you for that uh presentation. Uh just before we um get into questions, mover and secondary release the confidential materials listed as item 11.2 to those so the committee members may discuss them as part of the agenda item. Councelor Wang, Councelor Tatterson, this is an electronic vote, so please uh wait for that vote to come up and indicate accordingly. Councelor Pauls, is your question on on this or just for after? Okay, thank you. The vote is up. That carries 7 to Z. Thank you. Uh I am populating a speakers list. Uh councelor Casar, do you want to be added? It's just easier for me to ask. No, you're good right now. If anything, just put hands up, please. We'll start with councelor Paul's and then I have councelor Bey Wang and Tatison. I think she meant her thumbs up. I can't move her hand up. I did not I just wanted to uh vote. I didn't hand up. Thank you. Thanks, councelor. Councelor Bey, go ahead. Thank you chair and through you. Um my question is with regards to some of the um the passenger count numbers. Um and we'll probably end up spending we always spend far more time on the smaller piece of the pie, but it's the most um graphic. I think people are most interested in what is the passenger growth, what is the passenger growth, even though it's far surpassed by what we do in in freight, which is really the meat and potatoes of the airport. But back to the the passenger numbers. Um the the presentation had the the graphical chart there. There's no page numbers, so I'm sorry. I can't refer it to I think it's page five or six. Uh 2019, we're in the 900,000 range. And I know we're always striving for that million passenger mark. Then unfortunately we dip down into the threes during the pandemic years. Uh we ramp back up in 2023. We're getting closer again with in the 800,000 range. Um some changes made WestJet, Swoop, etc. We dropped back down to 300,000. Uh now we've brought in Porter, which is very exciting. And so you can almost see a bit of a trend that kind of every 5 years we seem to have this up and down and up and down. So my first question I'm just wondering if you can illustrate verbally because it's not included as part of this presentation previous to 2019. What was the trajectory if you're able to uh offer us what was the the delta between when we were at 300,000 and then when we hit that 900,000 mark in 2019? Anything you can offer of that timeline? Yeah, that's my first question. Go ahead, Peter. Yeah, thank you. So prior to 2019, so Swoop originally launched in we'll call it 2018 and so we saw the growth. Prior to that, prior to Swoop entering the market, the airport was run roughly around that 300 400,000 passenger mark as well. And so the good news, if there's good news, is we know that the inherent underlying demand for sure is around that 300,000 passenger mark. And so what we've seen to your your question and and your comment is that when a carrier comes in and they add the capacity, the market grows and responds accordingly. And for whatever reason, when the carriers exit the market for their reasons, the capacity exits and therefore then there's a minimum level of flights that are offered that meets around that 300 400,000 passenger mark. it it it seems to fluctuate or stable like that's the lowest and um so maybe the next and I'll just get to why do we believe that this is a little bit different going forward with Porter and that's really again we've seen the commitment to adding and growing service the community's responded once they've added the service but I think unlike some of the previous carriers whether that be Swoop or whether that be play airlines that have come in or not um Porter has also made significant investments outside of the airport in the region and in the community as well as I mentioned the Tiger Cats partnership the investment and partnership that they're building a hanger at Tigat Stadium as well. So we those for those reasons we we remain very optimistic about that the partnership with Porter and the the growth of passenger side of the business. Okay, thank you for that. And so um a follow-up question then what what's that magic number do you so establishing the baseline demand is roughly 300,000 if we do very little we have an organic ability for 300,000 passengers to go through the terminal. Um when we get a motivated carrier then that's when we start to see the upswing and and we have a motivated carrier in in Porter. in terms of the timeline, are you able to offer or predict when we might start getting back into that 800 900,000 uh range? And a follow-up question kind of part B. I I noticed that porters fleet are smaller in in general. Um fewer passengers can fit on their planes as opposed to what the type of plane that WestJet used. They use the Boeing product. The Embberer and the Dehavlins are smaller by their nature. So, is it is it even reasonable that with a smaller fleet of smaller planes, we're able to get back up into those those numbers? So, that's kind of the part A and part B to my questions on that. Yeah, thank you for that. So, I I'll start with the first in terms of what is the forecast look like as to when we can expect the passenger activity to grow. I wish I had a crystal ball in terms of where that that that would go. We we have long-term forecasts that when we have scenarios in terms of low, medium, high or probable and a lot of this is also dependent on what's happening in the macro environment. So jet fuel as an example right now and that's going to have a big impact potentially on travel demand. And so it's a very hard question to answer specifically. We we know that the catchment area for the airport is 1 and a half 2 million passengers. Um Porter if everything goes well and other airlines as well WestJet potentially even Air Canada coming into the market those will accelerate the growth back to a million. we are working in the background as well to plan different scenarios but um so it's hard for me to say directly exactly when we do think that and have a forecast that sees us get back you know doubling where roughly doubling where we were p this past year in 2026 and if that trajectory continues to grow within the next three threeish 3 to 5 years we we'd be back at the levels um and maybe exceed anything that the airport has ever seen. And so that that is what we're working and committed to working with uh our partners and and continue to make sure that the existing the big thing is that the existing markets need to be successful. And so that leads a little bit to the second part of your question around the fleet type. So you're right operates a 737 which has roughly 189 seats or that's typically what was in market at the time. They also have um other variants of the 737 that are we'll call it around 140 seats. Porter's aircraft is 132 seats um two 2x two seating, no middle seats. The aircraft is a lot more uh lower operating cost than a 737. So when you look at it from an airlines perspective, um lower operating cost for the same amount of guests is always a good thing. And so will the volumes get there? This should help in terms of being the airline being profitable and again we don't we don't know their profitability but when an airline is doing well they're more inclined to continue to add flying and so with this type of an aircraft while it being a little bit smaller from a total seat perspective there's no reason they can't fill the aircraft up and it it comes down to as percentage of the number of seats that are filled And as long as those make economic sense for the airline, they'll continue to add. And I think and the other last thing I'll say is I think for a market like our size, having regular frequent service versus day of week service is important. And so that people whether it be traveling for business or for leisure, you have more options available in terms of your your travel and your travel schedule. that that is the first driver of choice for passengers and for people choosing is the they'll look at schedule first over pricing in in in some cases and so for us and working with the airlines is to provide as much schedule options as possible. Fantastic. Okay. So better to have a more profitable route than have excess capacity on the route. That's right. Okay. And because that will help growth over the longer term. Fabulous. Um final question, chair 3u, uh the radar lands. Um it's been an ongoing thing. Your your predecessor uh before you uh was here with a similar message. We're continuing to work with NAVCAN. We're continuing to work with Navan. It's been going on about two years. Um is there a reasonable timeline on when a decision point might be reached? That's part one. And then part two is elected officials sitting around this table. And I think I made this offer, somebody probably made this offer to to Mr. Horncastle before. Um, what can we do to assist in trying to get that because it really just see to us as as laymen seems like a bit of a no-brainer that that we have kind of an an older radar system that would probably benefit from being relocated for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to free up that valuable space. What could we do to assist through you chair? Thank you. So the the NAV has indicated that they will move the radar. They are exploring different locations and and the challenge right now is that they're undergoing um a broader I'll call it strategic mandate around the technology that Nav Canada is using in general. And so one including going to digital towers as another example in terms of um moving away from physical towers. And so they have expressed to us that they will move the tower which the time frame from the beginning of when they said would likely be call it a 7-year time frame. And so it's a matter of it it will move. It's just a matter of they've got to lock down that technology and where they want to place some of these different um locations and and continue to explore that whether that be continue to be on site of the airport or offsite even is one of those elements. So they're continue to go through that process there is there. So the second part of your question what can you and the rest of the committee and elected officials do? This is one that the airport is really working with them and it's a little bit of um working within the time frame of what NAV Canada is working at more I'll call it broadly beyond just Hamilton and so it's not just a Hamilton specific uh initiative or issue that is holding up the timing I think in the back of our minds we have towards the end of this decade is when we that land would become accessible to us is is the time frame that we are working towards. Okay. So more operational, less of a a governance or political correct decision point. Correct. Good to know that the study has been completed and that they they they've expressed that they're open to moving they will move the the the radar. They're trying to sort through the different technologies and potential locations. Okay. Well, keep us in mind uh should should the uh dynamics of that conversation change, I think you've got willing partners around this uh this chamber, this table uh that would be willing to assist. Thank you, Chair. No further questions. Thanks, Councelor Bey. Councelor Wang, thank you. Uh, similar to councelor Bey's sort of first line of questions, uh, Mr. Tong, uh, just a question around Play Airlines, uh, it was widely like seen in the media as uh, the business model wasn't there in Hamilton. So I wonder, have we done a post-mortem on how we might be able to keep additional newer players that might come into the marketplace and essentially keep them here and keep them happy and and uh drive more traffic through passenger operations that way. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Play Airlines was a little bit of a different factor with respect to their whole business model. So I'll go back to they they're no longer operating as an airline and so what they faced was challenges I'll call it with just overall profitability going back to across their whole transatlantic services. And so while we know that Hamilton was one of their transatlantic markets along with a couple others in the US, the learnings that we have are continuing to have close relationships, close partnership discussions around performance and what we can do. I think that they were very happy with everything that we were doing from community events, connecting them with um other travel partners, travel industry partners. And so this this factor of them leaving was more I'll call it company specific versus market specific to Hamilton. Um the the services were wellreceived from a passenger perspective. I think it just comes down to them as a company not being able to make money. Thank you for that. My next question is a bit of a change in trajectory. I'd like to understand a little bit more about um the work of Bidd Carson Developments um and how are they different from say KF aerospace. Now I recognize that they are have they have two very different models but I see that as they're not cargo, they're not passenger, they're outside of that. So what like how do we want to support is there a direction in moving towards that third sort of business model of the biddf because we don't have a ton of space. Yeah, understood. So Bidd is really there there's a couple different models to your point. KF and other we'll call it MRO's maintenance repair overhaul. Those are big organizations that aircraft come in do maintenance work activity. We have our cargo operations. We have our passenger activity, passenger operations. There's another component which latitude and bit carson bidd's foss so fixed base operators. And so this is operators that provide space for private aircraft, GA, general aviation aircraft to come in and and park aircraft and leave. This is a complimentary business to the airport for sure. There's not one that is in our minds um more important or even growing at a quicker pace than the others. I think as you see other airports in the region become more congested, more difficult to access, there's going to be a natural tendency for other fixed base operators to explore growing a presence here to give another option for people. Again, part of that is just the demographics and the catchment area of the airport. It's a lot more convenient to fly in and out of Hamilton versus going all the way to Pearson to get on a private jet. Um, and but it's a smaller part of the business as you mentioned. There will continue to be um a growth potential there, but um our focus is just really f finding the right developers and tenants that support aviation in general and the whole ecosystem. Thank you, Councelor Wang. Councelor Tatterson, I just wanted to um concentrate on the passenger experience. In your presentation, you said that 89% of the people um had a positive experience. I'm that father when the kid comes home with an exam that says 89%. I want to know about the 11% they didn't get so that they I know that they understand. So I'm in the in the interest of continuous improvement. What have you learned from the other 11% that didn't have that positive experience? Yeah, thank you for the question. It's a good question. um we always continue to look at and some of those continue they're very the good news is it's one of I I'll say in general there's nothing one specific and those come down what we find a lot of the negative reviews aren't around the airport but it's around the airlines performance and so whether it be because of an irregular operation their flight what's was canceled or significantly delayed and or when they've gotten off the plane and it's taken in a long time where they've had to wait for their baggage. So that's generally where the 11% as you you've mentioned would fall is it's directly around the operations of the flight and less about the airport. Then can I ask was there any negativity about the uh schedule for landline? Sorry the the schedule for landline connecting people sometimes that bus doesn't come no automatically. No, we don't we don't we that doesn't pop as to one of the key themes that come through the the feedback there. Okay, thanks for that. Um, moving to the marketing and advertising, where's the main focus of our concentration? Like where where's the dollars going to um advertise? Is it in the greater Toronto area here? Yeah, thank you. Uh, the it's funny, we we spend a lot of time, Colleen and I spend a lot of time around our budgets and where we're spending our dollars. A lot of it is in the core catchment area which I mentioned is Hamilton. We don't go much further beyond we'll call it Burlington/ Oakville like part of Oakville and a lot of the dollars are really then around the core area and that's where we see again to drive the most volume of passengers through the airport is in in that region. A lot of that is what we call um paid online presence and trying to create awareness of the airport and the services that are are um generated. There's elements whether it be from Instagram, Facebook, all all the traditional methods that you would see in advertising done and that's really around messaging around a new terminal. There's a nice new convenient airport that is refreshed and be around the services and options that the community has to fly in and out of of Hamilton. Okay, thanks for that. I was just wondering because I was at the airport probably about a month ago and I met a couple um and they're driving up from Eerie and they're bringing their child who was you know continually going back and forth from Vancouver for university and they would not they would to avoid I guess customs in the airport they would drive from Eerie to Hamilton and they just loved it and they came here and I thought well what a great opportunity to advertise because it's like you're not dealing with the traffic to Toronto you know, and you're not dealing with the hassle in the airport. So, just um food for thought on that one. I just wanted to ask you a couple last questions about the um are the taxi ways complete and are we looking at still extending the airport runway? And if that's beyond the what I'm supposed to be asking, just let me know. Yeah. So we're always um undergoing I I shouldn't say always but there like I mentioned earlier this year we have another runway project 06 our secondary runway 0624 is undergoing rehabilitation work this year taxiways uh will continue to update upgrade those as needed. There's no significant taxiway work that's planned this year. And then in terms of a runway extending 0624 longer, at this point we don't have any plans to do that. And that's really a function of the sufficiency of our main runway, which all the cargo carriers need to operate off the main runway, the longer 10,000 ft runway versus the shorter one. And um the volume of traffic and activity today doesn't warrant us to invest and spend more money on extending that runway. Thank you. Um, if I have questions for staff, will that be later? Yeah, once we receive the presentation. Yeah. Um, anyone online with questions? No. Okay. Um, Peter, thank you very much for the presentation. I've traveled a few times through the airport since the new work and it's um my experience going through it with my elderly parents and three I'll stop about the words. I'm going to describe my kids as my three children that I go with it. uh they loved it. I don't know if the passengers loved them being in the airport running around, but um thank you for uh the work you're and your team's doing uh at the airport. It's definitely uh on display when you go through. So, well, thank you for the support. Thank you for continuing to build awareness for the airport when you're in the community. Um it's an important important piece is ensuring people know that the airport has a lot of services that people should be looking at before they go and travel elsewhere. Thank you. Thank you. Um, we'll get a mover in second to receive the presentation. Councelor Tatterson, Councelor Wang. Um, show of hands or Yeah, show of hands is fine. That carries. Perfect. Councelor Tatison, you indicated you had some questions of staff. I do. I just um I heard this the airport is uh going through a little bit of an electrification kind of situation where they're, you know, using their fleet. Um, that leads me to think about the capacity issues for electricity basically in the Mount Hope area. And I'm wondering from staff, is the airport at the table with Hydro 1 in trying to negotiate building capacity and improving the grid out there? Who wants to take that? Director, I don't know if someone has the answer to that question, but if you want to give us something, director, please go ahead. Um, through the uh through the chair to the counselor. Um I actually it's a good question to ask Peter. We haven't had any direct we've certainly had conversations around that. Uh are they at the table with us? Um I'm not 100% sure as we're we're certainly advocating for more hydro capacity in around that area and we've talked to some of their tenants who have expressed concern in that area as well. Um so their tenants certainly are on board. We've informed the airport about their the need uh from their tenants perspective. So uh but are they actually at the table with us talking? I would say probably no not not officially but uh indirectly. Peter, can Peter address that as well? Peter, that that's right. We our our team is continues to work with not only our tenants but also the the needs of the airport in terms of we know that as the airport grows and as we look longer term the needs of the airport, we work with city around the need for bringing in more utilities into the airport. Councelor Tatterson. Okay. Thanks. I just think that anything that you know that you could do on our behalf to advocate for that would be um might resonate with the ministers involved in that a little bit more than just us, you know, crying wolf all the time. Thank you. Crying. Councelor T. You haven't been crying at the airport, have you? All right. Um moving on to private and confidential 11.1 March 27, 2025. Move and second to adopt the close session minutes of the previous previous meeting and have them remain confidential. Councelor Bey, councelor Tatison. All those in favor, please show of hands. And that carries. Uh it is 10:17 and we have no further business. The airport subcommittee meeting is now adjourned. Peter and company, thank you for coming. Staff, thank you. Have a great day, everyone.

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