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Porter Airlines to Fly NY
In what is surely the worst kept secret in commercial aviation history, Porter Airlines appears to be on the verge of finally announcing flights to New York City direct from their airport on Toronto Island. Porter ran an ad in a number of Toronto newspapers over the weekend with a very cryptic red apple along with the headline, "Some news is just too big to hide. A new destination coming soon."
Besides that little tidbit, Porter CEO Robert DeLuce told USA Today in December that they're "looking closely" at adding flights to several US cities, including NYC (and possibly Chicago). In fact, he said he'd prefer to see flights going to and from both New York's LaGuardia airport as well as Newark. Having just added a flight direct to Mont Tremblant, Porter appears to be on the up, but can they sustain their success south of the border?
Back in August last year during my last experience with Porter, I had nothing but good things to say about it. Getting to the airport was painless, as was going through security, checking bags, and the in-flight experience was a treat.
You can still get dirt-cheap rates with Porter starting at $79 to/from Montreal (coming to a total of around $250 after taxes and fees), and it will be interesting to see if they can compete with the big boys flying into the US. Air Canada and a number of other airlines currently charge about $400-$450 for a round-trip flight to LaGuardia.
Still to this day I've never been to New York City, disheartened either by the potential 8-hour drive, or by the prospect of having to brave through Pearson to get there. If Porter can offer a competitively-priced flight, this could be a huge win for them.
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If this proves to be true, I can't wait to see what kind of prices they offer, and how they compare.
Should definitely be interesting.
I love New York! :)
The Island Airport (YTZ) for general aviation pilots arriving from the US the main CBSA office used to be there, the sinage for it is still there but as part of the Rochester ferry debacle it moved over to the ferry terminal but moving back to the airport wouldn't be a big deal if necessary.
There will not initially and probably not ever be US clearance at YTZ, so Porter will be restricted to flying to international airports in the US, for NYC this means Newark Liberty instead of LaGuardia.
My guess is that fuel prices will be too high for us to fly in about ten years, so lets take advantage of it, and finally get downtown toronto properly connected to the world.
Excellent point by Chester - LGA has limited customs facility and only accepts flights that have been precleared (i.e. major Canadian or Caribbean airports) so the destination will probably be Newark. This is not so bad as a decade ago, now that Newark has an airport monorail and a commuter rail connection to midtown Manhattan. It takes more time than a cab from LGA, but at least it is immune to traffic. I encourage all Torontonians to try it out so that they can glower over the lack of something similar at Pearson.
Joe, that's quite the commitment to your girlfriend. Kudos, for sure.
Toronto needs a rail connection at Pearson regardless of what happens at YTZ - are we a first-class city or a collective monument to ineptitude? The list of major cities without airport rail links is shrinking fast.
As for YTZ, there are certainly some benefits to keeping the Island Airport and some benefits to closing it. Chicago already had Midway when they took out Meigs Field, a luxury that Toronto does not have (unless Pickering suddenly goes forward). In the meantime, good luck to Porter on their new service.
uSkyscraper - god I hope not. At least the Island is already tarmac - Pickering is farmland.
Look at how much it has grown already (10 new bombadier Q400s added September 2006). Porter, to their credit, has never hidden their plans for expansion (900,000 passengers a year as a starting point - double the airport's peak in the 1980s). While extending the runways to support regional jets requires a lot of work (physical and political), Porter has shown they are more than up to the task.
If Porter is succesful, they're going to want / need to expand. Do you wait until that happens? If the city can't control / remove an airline when it's losing money, imagine how hard it will be to control / remove control an airline that is succesful.
Is that a rhetorical question?
I am distressed that the rights of a private company are held to be greater than that of taxpayers and residents of Toronto. Porter Airlines is highly polluting for the waterfront of Toronto- there is no amount of debate that can say otherwise- and we should be very worried about what those flights are going to do to the water quality of Lake Ontario, and to the air directly above Toronto. The previous debates cannot convince me that carbon emissions from a car are the equivalent of a flight- there are airport buses that are easy to take as well from central Toronto.
Also, to call the airport loud is kind of funny given all the other noises around that part of town: the ugly Lakeshore and the ugly Gardiner (now, THAT I would really love to see torn down), the motor boats (and outlaw THAT while you're at it - I'm serious). When I am in that part of the world, all the airplane noise gets completely drowned in that cacaphony.
I think the Island Airport, and Porter in particular, are tremendous assets for our city.
Besides, there are worse things in Toronto that people should be trying to get outlawed. David Miller for example.
You can get back and forth from New York for $232.00
DISC15 book by March 9 2009. Travel by May 13 2009.
John C. Munro airport?