Toronto-based regional airline Porter Air, which has been on ‘pause’ throughout the pandemic, is not only resuming operations on September 8 but is also planning a major expansion that will see it flying to dozens of new destinations.
Porter, which operates a fleet of 29 Dehavilland Dash 8-400 turboprops to over a dozen airports in eastern Canada and five U.S. East Coast cities, announced Monday that it has ordered a fleet of 30 Embraer E190-E2 jets that will give it a range extending as far as Los Angeles and other West Coast U.S. cities, as well as far more Canadian destinations.
The new planes, which will start arriving next year, will also mean a shift of location for Porter, because its just-off-shore Toronto Island base, Billy Bishop Airport, does not allow jet operations. The jets will be based at Toronto Pearson. More route details will be announced later.
The E195-E2 can carry 132 passengers in a single-class configuration, a bit fewer if premium seats are installed. The contract with Embraer allows Porter to shift some of its orders to E190s, which carry about 106 passengers. The jet shift revives a previous Porter plan: in 2013, it was negotiating to buy the Bombardier CS-100, now Airbus A220.
