Toronto Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport | ?m | ?s | Ports Toronto | Arup

There's a shuttle that departs from the York St entrance of the Royal York Hotel every 10 minutes. That'll take you right to the Airport. If you're flying domestic I would suggest getting on the shuttle an hour before your flight at the very least. If you're flying to the US, I'd give it an extra 15 minutes at least because you need to be on the island and checked in at least 30 mins prior to departure. If you're not, you won't be on the flight. Really, if you're there early, it's no big deal because Porter has a lounge and everything in it is complimentary.
 
>>>How far? 2,900 metres according to Google: <<<

It might be a little bit further, but it would be a more pleasant walk if you either keep going down Bay Street to Queen's Quay or take the Skywalk to the CN Tower and then go down Rees Street (you could stay indoors for almost half your journey that way).

I'd avoid walking along the Lakeshore.
 
Google reports that King to Bay, to Bremnar to Rees is the same distance.

Yeah, not a fun street to walk along ... once, before I lived in Toronto, I parked in a temporary lot near Bathurst and Lakeshore and tried to walk along Lakeshore to Spadina ... I was al little suprised to find that the sidewalk just petered out, and left you on a quasi-expressway, suspended over Spadina with no way for getting down!! LOL!
 
Cathal Kelly's Article in the Star yesterday - http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/599347

Also, in the summer, there will be 41 flights per day out of the island (in bound flights will be roughly the same). Considering they started with 9 flights per day, that's a pretty big increase in under 3 years. The issue right now might be whether they go to more US desitinations considering how bad things are there or if they go somewhere like Thunder Bay instead. Just read the article and its description of how Chicago is doing (and, just to note, Cathal Kelly flew on a good day...) and it makes you wonder what things would be like if they went to Boston, Philly or Washington.
 
I'm flying Porter to Chicago at the end of April, returning a few days later. The base fare was astonishingly low when I booked - $56 OW, on the "Flexible" (intermediate) fare class. Sure taxes were double that, but still a bargain. The airport also means I can leave from work at my normal time and catch the evening flight out.

I'm curious about what the load factor to and from Midway will be.
 
DC-YYZ is a veeerrryyyy lightly-travelled route. Not a lot of business traffic at all; Air Canada used to do it with the Regional Jet. Subtract the connecting traffic, since Porter has no real network to feed, and you're down to pretty slim pickings.

Then there's the question of whether Porter could get a slot at National. If they can only get Dulles they shouldn't even bother.

The thing is, a huge proportion of the traffic that Air Canada brings through Pearson is on its way somewhere else--either in Canada, or, increasingly, to Europe and Asia. Porter obviously can't do that, and the number of short-haul destinations that can sustain O-and-D only from Toronto is pretty small.
 
Heh. I flew from Toronto to BWI - while there's 4-5 AC flights a day, they are served by tiny Jazz Dash 8-100s. Indeed National would be the only place it makes sense to fly out of in the DC market for an outfit like Porter.

I think Porter has probably tapped most of the O-D routes. I can't see them making YTZ into a hub, as AC or US carriers have direct flights to most of the important Northeast destinations anyway from somewhere like Ottawa.

The only thing that will likely kill Porter is ambitious expansion plans. The Ottawa and Montreal runs I hear have healthy loads.

Anyone been on a Newark run?
 
Ottawa and Montreal are very healthy. Of course it depends on the time of day, but it's certainly normal to have almost full flights at peak times. It will be interesting to see what happens when they increase the number of flights to these locations (look at the number of flights scheduled in April and May) because they might run the risk of simply spreading out their passengers instead of acquiring new ones. Right now they have flights to these locations roughly every hour or so. That's going to increase to around 45min gaps. Question is, how often do you think someone has said "I'm not going to choose Porter because I want to leave 15 mins earlier"? i don't think it happens. So you're going to get the same amount of passengers spread over more flights, thereby decreasing profits...

I've flown to Newark. Newark's problem is with ground delays. They shut the airport down on a daily basis and it can vary from 15 mins to 4 hours. This is a problem with every airport in New York, so it's not like it is unique to Porter, but it does make it stressful on passengers (and employees! haha), especially with the limited amenities on the Island compared to Pearson. I wasted 6 hours in YUL on my way to London last April, and it was no problem. 6 hours on the Island? yikes! They are building a new terminal right now as well (it's huge) and that will have a restaurant and a magazine shop and whatnot, which could help.

I went to Chicago during the first week Porter went there. MDW is a great airport for these quick jaunts and Porter is the only international carrier to go there, so there's no lines at customs. The problem is that there just isn't the business between the two cities that you would expect. And I suspect that the same holds true for Washington (as mentioned) Boston, Philly, etc. the scary thing is, they want to go to places like Cincinnati eventually... If you read the Re:porter magazine they have a map inside that shows the business plan. It's very ambitious.

Montreal and Ottawa are the breadwinners. Newark has been good enough. Chicago, meh. Halifax has been great (especially during holidays) and Quebec City ebbs and flows.

I hope they're successful because I have many friends there. I just worry about the ambition as well.
 
Yeah, my girlfriend and I went on the Newark flight in October. Very pleasant experience, and the plane was full going both directions. We plan to take Porter whenever possible in the future and we're hoping for more regional expansion, but I really hope they don't go overboard.
 
allabootmatt said:
DC-YYZ is a veeerrryyyy lightly-travelled route. Not a lot of business traffic at all; Air Canada used to do it with the Regional Jet. Subtract the connecting traffic, since Porter has no real network to feed, and you're down to pretty slim pickings.
Click to expand...

I guess, being in Toronto, we assume that new routes would be YTZ - "XXX".....if they were starting service to DC would it make more sense for an Ottawa to DC? (as an example)
 
jn_12 said:
Cathal Kelly's Article in the Star yesterday - http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/599347

Also, in the summer, there will be 41 flights per day out of the island (in bound flights will be roughly the same). Considering they started with 9 flights per day, that's a pretty big increase in under 3 years. The issue right now might be whether they go to more US desitinations considering how bad things are there or if they go somewhere like Thunder Bay instead. Just read the article and its description of how Chicago is doing (and, just to note, Cathal Kelly flew on a good day...) and it makes you wonder what things would be like if they went to Boston, Philly or Washington.
Click to expand...
I really hope the Boston plan will go through, not least because it will be great news for myself, but also because I foresee it will be successful. A cheap, downtown-to-downtown flight between BOS and TO will not only attract businesspeople working in the financial districts, but also the significant number of students, researchers and scientists that travel between these two research hubs, and could even help spur growth in the tech and biomed sectors in Toronto.

"Toronto's waterfront is a place for people to live, work and play and is not an appropriate place for a commercial airport," Mayor David Miller responds.
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Tell that to Boston or the Logan Airport. While LOG, at 1 km away from Boston's downtown and waterfront, is twice farther than YTZ is from Toronto's downtown, it is an international airport with commercial jets flying out. Boston's waterfront may not exactly be teeming with life, but the airport certainly has very little effect on it (except contributing to the striking down of the plans for a couple of supertalls in Boston downtown, due to flight paths).
 
TOareaFan said:
I guess, being in Toronto, we assume that new routes would be YTZ - "XXX".....if they were starting service to DC would it make more sense for an Ottawa to DC? (as an example)
Click to expand...

Any trip not involving YTZ means competing directly with Air Canada and Westjet on the same terms with price being the only real differentiator (both Air Canada and WestJet can run higher frequencies at lower prices with a more comfortable ride). They don't always, but easily could.

YTZ is Porters trump card that makes it worth taking. Much more convenient.

After taxes, airport fees, etc. Air Canada is still $20 (10%) cheaper than porter for a round trip. ($216 for porter vs. $194 for Air Canada). WestJet also comes in at $216. May 19th to May 21st, a trip I intend to take on Via 1.

The taxes and airport fees seem to add the same to all 3 tickets. The difference is that Air Canada seats start at $58 ($69 - baggage, points, etc.) instead of $69.
 
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