Porter Airlines Officially Restarts Operations

Canada’s Porter Airlines is finally returning to the skies today, nearly a year-and-a-half after suspending flights due to COVID-19. 

Porter on Wednesday welcomed passengers back on service to Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and Thunder Bay, the first four destinations for the carrier. 

Over the next ten days, the carrier will add Halifax, Quebec City, St. John’s, NL, and Moncton before then adding Boston, Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C. on Sept. 17. 

“Our passengers and team members have been waiting for this day to arrive,” said Michael Deluce, president and CEO, Porter Airlines. 

“We currently have over 900 team members who have put in countless hours to get everything ready for our return to service, with more being recalled or hired every week. Everyone at Porter is looking forward to welcoming passengers back and delivering our distinct style of service again.”

Porter will continue to offer passengers the ability to chancel or change with no fees for all bookings made before Sept. 30. 

Porter had been generating buzz prior to the pandemic with convenient flights out of Toronto’s close-in airport and its low fares. It had been carrying close to 3% of Canadian air travel and was part of a blossoming low-fare Canadian carrier expansion that included Air Canada’s Rouge and WestJet’s Swoop.

Most recently, Port revealed plans to add 80 Embraer E195-E2 to its fleet starting in the second half of 2022. The total order is valued at $5.82 billion and could add as many as 6,000 new jobs.

Porter said that its plan is to use the aircraft for service to popular destinations from Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, and Toronto Pearson.