Early history Hamilton's first airport was the Hamilton Municipal Airport or Civic Airport at Reid Avenue North and Dunsmure Road (site of Roxborough Park) in 1929. It began as the home to the Hamilton Aeroclub. The
Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) became a major user of the airport in the 1930s, but the airport closed in the 1950s to make way for residential development. In 1940, Mount Hope Airport was opened and became the site of
RCAF Station Hamilton. During
World War II, the field hosted two units for the
British Commonwealth Air Training Plan: first, 10 Elementary Flying Training School (later moved to
RCAF Station Pendleton) using the
De Havilland Tiger Moth and
Fleet Finch, then No. 33 Air Navigation School using the
Avro Anson. After the war, the airport gradually shifted towards civil use, until the military ceased using it as a base for Air Reserve operations in 1964. From 1969 to 1985,
Nordair offered jet service from Hamilton to Montreal, Grand Bahama Island and Windsor.
City Express flew to Montreal and Ottawa for three months in 1985. Tempus Air offered same route as City Express from 1986 to 1988.
USAir began service to Pittsburgh in 1987. By 1988,
Pan Am Express flew to New York City and
Nationair flew to London, England. Pan Am Express and Nationair stopped their operations at Hamilton in the following year. Canadian Partner began service to Montreal and Ottawa in 1989.
1990s Canadian Partner's service to Montreal and Ottawa ended in 1991. The consortium consisted of WestPark Developments, Vancouver Airport Authority and TradePort International Corporation Ltd., a subsidiary of Vantage Airport Group, which manages 10 airports.
2000-2010 In 2000,
WestJet expanded to Canada's eastern region, choosing Hamilton as the airline's eastern region
hub, From 2007 to 2009,
Flyglobespan offered seasonal service to the United Kingdom, including
Liverpool,
Manchester and
Doncaster. In 2010, WestJet cut two-thirds of its flights out of Hamilton. The only remaining service by WestJet was one daily service to
Calgary.
2010-present Hamilton saw growth as Air Canada resumed daily flights to Montreal in 2016 via
Air Canada Express and WestJet adding service to
Edmonton,
Halifax and
Winnipeg. In 2017, Hamilton experienced an 80 per cent increase in passengers, to 600,000, which was still well below its capacity of 3 million per year. In 2018, ultra-low-cost carriers including
Swoop,
Flair Airlines,
Canada Jetlines chose Hamilton as a hub for service to the
Greater Toronto region. Flair Airlines later shifted operations to Toronto-Pearson in mid-2018 and Air Canada Express again ended its service to Montreal in early-2019. From March to September 2019,
Norwegian Air Shuttle operated flights to
Dublin, bringing transatlantic service to Hamilton for the first time in over a decade, but ceased operations citing
Boeing 737 MAX groundings. During the
COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario, Hamilton airport saw 60% reduction in passenger services over the year 2020 while peak levels of cargo operations were maintained. The airport was a key entry point for imported medical supplies into the country, including Canada's first shipment of the
Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine which landed on December 14, 2020 from
Cologne, Germany by
UPS Airlines. In January 2023, Icelandic airline
Play announced plans to bring flights between Hamilton and
Reykjavík in June 2023, re-introducing service to Europe. However, the airline ended this route on April 23, 2025. ==Secondary airport for Toronto==