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Has Porter considered short-haul commuter routes? They could potentially be feasible with the Island Airport's downtown location and some form of commuter pricing. Perhaps destinations like London, Kingston, Windsor, Niagara, Sudbury.
 
CDL.TO said:
Has Porter considered short-haul commuter routes? They could potentially be feasible with the Island Airport's downtown location and some form of commuter pricing. Perhaps destinations like London, Kingston, Windsor, Niagara, Sudbury.
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Would there be a market there? I can see Niagara, from a tourism perspective. Imagine being a 30 min (if that long) plane ride to a day at the falls? Maybe Kingston for the University crowd. Windsor? Not much there other than the border crossing to Det, might as well land in Det. London? Maybe, but again what kind of market is there. Sudbury maybe, but they are already serving Thunder Bay. What they should do is work out an arrangement with some bus company (greyhound?) to run routes from the Thunder Bay airport to the other Northern ontario towns.

Collingwood would work from a tourism perspective as well, and maybe Sarnia as well.
 
Sudbury is about a 10-12 hour drive from Thunder Bay. It'd be faster for just about any other Northern Ontario city to take a bus from Toronto. Even Sault Ste. Marie. Sudbury might be feasible now that there's a selection of connecting flights from YTZ, though the airport is in a gawd awful location.
 
Woodbridge_Heights said:
Would there be a market there? I can see Niagara, from a tourism perspective. Imagine being a 30 min (if that long) plane ride to a day at the falls? Maybe Kingston for the University crowd. Windsor? Not much there other than the border crossing to Det, might as well land in Det. London? Maybe, but again what kind of market is there. Sudbury maybe, but they are already serving Thunder Bay. What they should do is work out an arrangement with some bus company (greyhound?) to run routes from the Thunder Bay airport to the other Northern ontario towns.

Collingwood would work from a tourism perspective as well, and maybe Sarnia as well.
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Sudbury is nowhere near Thunder Bay, it's much closer to Toronto. Just from looking at a map there's doesn't seem to be much near Thunder Bay. Sudbury is a decent size town (~150K) and North Bay is close by too... that might be feasible.
 
If you look at Porter's magazine (PDF) from last fall (page 48), they show Timmins, Sudbury and the Soo as potentials.... I think Sudbury would have the best chance with all the mining companies there.
 
Woodbridge_Heights said:
Would there be a market there? I can see Niagara, from a tourism perspective. Imagine being a 30 min (if that long) plane ride to a day at the falls? Maybe Kingston for the University crowd. Windsor? Not much there other than the border crossing to Det, might as well land in Det. London? Maybe, but again what kind of market is there. Sudbury maybe, but they are already serving Thunder Bay. What they should do is work out an arrangement with some bus company (greyhound?) to run routes from the Thunder Bay airport to the other Northern ontario towns.

Collingwood would work from a tourism perspective as well, and maybe Sarnia as well.
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Note I said commuter market, where Porter would be competing with private automobiles and VIA (not with other airlines). There's a surprisingly large number of people who live in smaller cities and need to make regular work trips to Toronto. Some of these people even have apartments in Toronto and work on schedules like 3 days in Toronto/4 days at home. This is a part of why Air Canada has 8 trips a day between Toronto and London, ON and 8 flights a day between Toronto and Kingston, ON. This is a market where Porter's downtown airport has a huge advantage over Air Canada.

It's a higher-end market than you average commuter, but these people DO exist and could potentially fill enough of a Q400 to be profitable. Why else are flights operated by small jets/props often referred to as "commuter flights"?
 
I've heard (might have been here, might have been SSP) that Porter has considered a feeder service from YKF in Kitchener-Waterloo. An expensive trip, but when the other flexible option is driving in, it's certainly welcome.
 
DHLawrence85 said:
I've heard (might have been here, might have been SSP) that Porter has considered a feeder service from YKF in Kitchener-Waterloo. An expensive trip, but when the other flexible option is driving in, it's certainly welcome.
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It would seem to be a good one, but I'd figure, anyone travelling from Waterloo is far more likely to prefer Pearson (cause it's closer) or are traveling internationally which means Air Canada by default. I'd wonder if there's enough traffic from YKF to Porter's few other routes to make it worthwhile.

Also, Waterloo has a massive amount of business travelers who use private jets. That airport has bizjets lined up like fighters on an airbase during the Cold War. I doubt this crowd would convert to Porter, even if the service is alright.
 
Where did you hear about K-W? Unless it was from upper management, and they had a private conversation with you, I'm 99% sure that it's a false rumour.

Niagara doesn't even have an airport. (which is strange considering it's a top 5 global tourist attraction with a surrounding population of 500k)
Windsor is in the business plan
Everywhere up north (Soo, sudbury, Thunder Bay) is in the business plan

I think they have bigger fish to fry. They would much rather establish themselves in US markets than waste their time and energy on establishing 20 minute routes. There's no way I'd consider flying to Niagara and I can pretty much fly with them for free. The process of flying (checkin, yada yada yada) would really only save someone 15 minutes. Same goes for KW.

Philly and Washington are next up. Probably by summer next year I would think.
 
Park 'n fly at Downsview or Buttonville, then hop to the airport? Ha...
 
jn_12 said:
Niagara doesn't even have an airport. (which is strange considering it's a top 5 global tourist attraction with a surrounding population of 500k)
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Sure they do - Buffalo International - not to mention Niagara Falls International in the US - though I'm not sure if there is any passenger service into it.

Even people in Toronto will drive to Buffalo to get a cheaper fare ... that's where everyone in Niagara Falls and St. Catharines goes to.
 
Once they get US preclearance, BKL (Cleveland Burke Lakefront) would be a good destination. It is right next to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and just down the street from Browns Stadium.

Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport

EDIT: You could include Niagara Falls (IAG) by flying a plane YTZ -> IAG -> BKL -> YTZ three or four times a day. People could leave Toronto, visit Niagara Falls in the morning, continue to Cleveland at lunchtime or in afternoon to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (or see a ball game) and then come back to Toronto at night. This would be particularly appealing to visitors to Toronto that want to see some other things for the day. Include a Porter Shuttle bus in Niagara Falls to take people to the falls from the airport and back to meet the next plane.

People in Cleveland could visit both Toronto and Niagara Falls in the same day as well.

The stop at IAG should be very short -- they shouldn't need to refuel.

I think this is legal if they sell only round trip tickets (IAG - BKL being a US-only leg there could be issues).
 
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jn_12 said:
Niagara doesn't even have an airport. (which is strange considering it's a top 5 global tourist attraction with a surrounding population of 500k)
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Niagara Region (ONT) has two airports. They just don't currently have any scheduled services. (And Niagara Falls (NY) airport doesn't even have any year-round scheduled flights.)

If there's a market for 20-30 minute flights (with quick check-in operations), I don't think they should write them off.
 
jn_12 said:
Where did you hear about K-W? Unless it was from upper management, and they had a private conversation with you, I'm 99% sure that it's a false rumour.
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Wouldn't surprise me in the least. Like I said, it was either here or SSP.

Thats nuts, 55 miles/90 km.
For goodness' sake, get a half decent train service.
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Tell Queen's Park; you're closer than I am, so they might actually listen to you.
 
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