Porter Airlines
Porter Airlines is a fairly new, small, but rapidly expanding airline that flies out of Toronto Island airport near downtown Toronto Ontario. The airline serves several cities including Ottawa, New York, Chicago, Montreal, Quebec City, Mont-Tremblant, Halifax and Thunder Bay. If you’re visiting Ontario, you might want to consider this little upstart whose tagline is “Flying Refined”. I recently flew with Porter Airline from Toronto to NYC and back, and was very impressed. A friend of mine has flown them several times from Toronto to Ottawa and he says they’re great on that route as well. On www.airlinequality.com, you’ll see that they have an excellent rating -- 4-stars– the highest rating an airline can get on their site. On yelp.ca they have a 4.5-stars out of 5. Not bad! The first difference between Porter Airlines and other airlines serving these routes is the airport location. With Porter you fly out of Toronto Island Airport, not Toronto Pearson Airport. That means if you’re based downtown (and as a tourist, you likely will be), you don’t have to travel all the way out to the suburbs to get to your flight. If you’re coming from out of town and taking the bus or train to Toronto, this really saves travel time – probably about two hours when you factor in the bus time and the lineups and the need to be there so early at the larger airport. With Porter, all you have to do is walk over (about 3 blocks) to the Royal York Hotel (where the other airport buses line up) and hop the free Porter shuttle to the ferry. That takes about 10 minutes. You’re only on the ferry about 3 minutes and then –boom! – you’re in the airport. Check-in and security are both fast and easy. Their recommended check-in time is only an hour for flights to the USA, as opposed to Pearson where they recommend 90 minutes. There are none of those horrendous line-ups you find at a big airport. It took me two minutes to check in. Since there’s only one airline it’s also a lot simpler – no running around trying to find the right desk.
Another nice touch is porcelain cups and silverware instead of styrofoam and plastic -- it gives you that cozy feeling of sitting in your own living room and not a waiting lounge. On board, the brand-new plane I took was smaller than most of the planes you’ll take on longer flights, with about 70 seats. It was impeccably clean and new-smelling. The grey leather seats again reflected that “refined” high-style décor seen in the waiting room. The seats were comfortable too, with good leg-room. I didn’t feel squished at all.
The return trip was just as pleasant. As soon as we exited the plane, our baggage was waiting about 5 feet away from the door. I couldn’t believe how easy it all was. There goes another half-hour or more saved from hanging around a huge luggage carousel! A quick ferry ride, the short shuttle and walk, and I was back at Union Station in no time. The location of the airport means that you get some spectacular scenery at take-off and landing: a great view of Toronto’s waterfront. I rarely see the skyline from this angle. It’s an extra perk. I paid about $400 for the return trip from Toronto to NYC. This was about double the cost of the train I took the last time I went to NYC, BUT it was well worth it. I saved pretty much an entire day, and the trip was a LOT more comfortable! I would definitely try Porter for other routes as well. UPDATE, 2010: My sister and I flew Porter from Toronto to Newfoundland and back. Excellent service again. I'm still sold on this airline. For more information: http://www.flyporter.com/ **All photos on this page courtesy of Porter Airlines.
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