A few Saturdays ago, we packed up the car and set out from downtown for the Hamilton airport. It was 2:15 p.m., exactly two hours before our Air Transat flight to Varadero, Cuba.

In the car: me, Marnie, our daughter, son-in-law, their seven-month-old, a stroller, a playpen and some very big suitcases. We took the Highway 6 South exit off the 403, parked, checked our bags, cleared security. I looked at my phone. It was 2:50 p.m.

From front door to departure lounge in 35 minutes. Hardly seems possible.

Our little airport is not quite the secret it once was. It handled 725,000 passengers in 2018, 21 per cent more than the year before.

But still, there are many who don't know how easy air travel can be up here on the fields of Mount Hope.

At Varadero, I talked to a pair of seniors from Port Dover. I said I bet they enjoyed flying out of Hamilton. "Actually," they said, "our travel agent suggested we go out of Toronto."

Wow. I can't imagine why. It's certainly no cheaper.

But the Gallardo family knows the score. They were on our plane, there and back - Miguel and Maria and five-month-old Mikaela. They live in downtown Toronto, and it took about an hour to get to the airport.

It's their second time here. "The people at check-in are friendlier," Maria says. She was taking pictures of the airport to show her 82-year-old mother, with the hope of persuading her to take a sun flight.

Hamilton International Airport (HIA) draws mainly from Hamilton, Burlington, Brantford, Niagara. But now about 20 per cent come from Toronto.

Two days ago, Norwegian Air started four-times-a-week service to Dublin, with linked Megabus service from downtown Toronto.

Dina Carlucci, the airport's marketing director, says up to 25 per cent of the Dublin bookings are coming from New York state. The flights are cheap anyway - and because they're priced in Canadian dollars, they're a real bargain for Americans.

It's not all wins for HIA. Air Canada quit its run to Montreal three days ago. Carlucci says the airline seemed to be going after business travellers, and they often want hourly frequency. Two or three times a day won't cut it.

But she thinks targeting the leisure traveller to Montreal could pay off. "I would encourage other carriers to strongly consider that market."

Last fall HIA lost fledgling low-cost carrier Flair Air too. The Competition Bureau of Canada is now looking into whether WestJet's discount carrier Swoop used predatory pricing to squeeze Flair out.

WestJet flies daily to Calgary from Hamilton. And Swoop flies to Abbotsford, Edmonton, Halifax, Winnipeg. Its U.S. destinations are Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa Bay and Las Vegas. And beyond the U.S., along with Sunwing and Air Transat, there are flights to seven sun spots.

But HIA needs more destinations. Carlucci knows where people want to go. She says the airport regularly surveys passengers about that. And now there's a new method of reading public demand.

A couple of months ago, the airport installed six jumbo gum ball machines - the brainwave of local firm Laundry Design Works. Below the machines, the question is posed: "Where do you want to go next?" The choices, at 25 cents a vote: Ottawa, New York, Vancouver, London, Paris, Los Angeles. Apparently London is inching ahead on the gum gauge.

Some passengers might also want the airport to get jet bridges, so you don't have to go outside to get on and off the plane. But Carlucci says the discount airlines don't like them. To run a low-cost carrier, you need to get that plane unloaded fast, and back into the air. Swoop uses both back and front doors to do that.

Sixty seconds on a chilly tarmac is a small price to pay. Traveller tip - ditch the flip-flops and shorts.

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