NewLeaf will fly passengers from Hamilton to Florida this winter

Hamilton's newest low-cost air carrier is offering new flights to Florida this winter.

Newleaf and Flair Airlines will fly from Hamilton to Orlando and Melbourne, Fla. The flights will run from Jan. 15 to the end of April, but the company may extend the schedule.

Flights from Hamilton to Florida were always a goal, said Jim Young, NewLeaf president and CEO. And the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport is happy too.

"Florida is a highly demanded destination for our passengers," said Vijay Bathija, president and CEO of the airport, in a media release Wednesday.

The more flights NewLeaf adds, the better for airport officials anxious to boost passenger flight numbers out of Hamilton.

Passenger numbers have fallen short of expectations over the years, drawing frustration from city councillors. But this August, months after NewLeaf announced its launch, those numbers started to turn around.

In 2015, the airport saw 312,839 passenger flights, down from 332,378 in 2014 and 341,470 in 2013. In August, Bathija told council earlier this year, they shot ahead of last year's numbers.