Porter Airlines (stylized in all lowercase as porter) is a Canadian airline headquartered at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport ('Toronto–Billy Bishop') in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the third largest airline in Canada behind Air Canada and WestJet. Owned by Porter Aviation Holdings, formerly known as REGCO Holdings Inc., Porter operates regularly scheduled flights from its bases in Eastern Canada, primarily Ottawa Macdonald–Cartier International Airport, Toronto–Billy Bishop, and Toronto Pearson International Airport ('Toronto–Pearson'), to locations across North America using a fleet of De Havilland Canada DHC-8-400 turboprop and Embraer E195-E2 jet aircraft.
History Porter's operation at Toronto–Billy Bishop, located on the Toronto Islands near downtown was launched in 2006 with some controversy.Portal on Porter Airliner World October 2026 pages 68-75 Robert Deluce, who is now the executive chairman of Porter Airlines, proposed creating a regional airline using Bombardier turboprop aircraft to service major cities of Canada within the range of Toronto. A planned bridge to the airport was cancelled in 2003, leading to lawsuits between Deluce and the City of Toronto. The airline lost the case in court, but the idea for the airline remained. With the compensation received from the Toronto Port Authority for the lawsuit, REGCO bought the island airport terminal used by Air Canada Jazz and terminated Air Canada's access. To accommodate Porter's expansion, Toronto–Billy Bishop opened a new, larger passenger terminal in March 2010.
From 2010 to 2012, Porter partnered with Bombardier Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney Canada to explore aviation biofuels. This culminated in flying once from Toronto to Ottawa on a 50/50 blend of biofuel and jet fuel, the first such commercial example in Canada. Two months later, Air Canada ran a 50/50 flight also, but there have been relatively few such flights since. In 2022, the Canadian government compelled airlines to lower their emissions, and as of 2023, more 50/50 flights are expected.
In 2013, Porter made a proposal to expand Toronto Island airport to allow jets. City Council reserved its support, requiring the controversial proposal to be the focus of port authority studies. In November 2015, the federal government announced it would not support the proposal. In 2015 a new pedestrian tunnel was opened connecting Toronto–Billy Bishop to the mainland. Despite an increase in passenger traffic at Bishop, Porter Airlines still reported a loss in operations during this period. In 2017, it lost million, in 2018 million and million in 2019. In 2018, Porter reduced the number of slots it rented at Bishop from Nieuport by 18.5%, effective in 2020, reducing its costs by million. Porter estimated that operating at Billy Bishop was three times the cost of operating at Toronto–Pearson.
On March 18, 2020, Porter announced that they would suspend all flights, initially from March 20 through to June 1 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The suspension of service was then extended several times until it was announced that Porter would be returning to service starting September 8, 2021, nearly 18 months since all flights were suspended. Porter Airlines reached an agreement with the Government of Canada for loans valued up to , which were used as a capital reserve during the COVID-19 pandemic recovery period.
In July 2021, Porter announced that it would begin flying out of Toronto–Pearson and expand its destinations throughout Canada, the United States, and Caribbean, starting in mid-2022. Porter ordered 30 Embraer E195-E2 jet airplanes in 2021, later increasing the number to 50. With the prohibition on jet traffic at Toronto Island Airport, Porter launched flights from Toronto–Pearson to new destinations in western Canada (Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary) and augmented its service to existing destinations in eastern Canada (Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax) that are already served by the De Havilland Dash 8-400 from Toronto–Billy Bishop. In November 2023, Porter ordered another 25 jets, bringing to total to 75 firm orders, with 25 purchase options still remaining.
In addition, the airline expanded its operation at Ottawa's Macdonald–Cartier International Airport. Porter launched new routes from Ottawa to two destinations in the eastern United States (New York-Newark and Boston) and four destinations across Canada (Charlottetown, Thunder Bay, Edmonton and Vancouver). With Porter’s Embraer E195-E2 aircraft being deployed from Toronto–Pearson and its De Havilland Canada DHC-8-400 aircraft serving the small Toronto–Billy Bishop, the Ottawa hub is the only one where both aircraft types have a regular presence, making it an important hub for Porter's network. Porter's largest maintenance hangar is located at the Ottawa airport. Porter has built a new maintenance base at Ottawa International Airport. The facility houses Porter's maintenance operations for the Embraer E195-E2. Porter partnered with Algonquin College to offer work-integrated learning at the facility.
Porter constructed a new terminal at the MET – Montreal Metropolitan Airport, which opened June 15, 2026. This enables domestic-only service to a secondary airport for the Montreal region. Porter flies both the De Havilland Dash 8-400 and the Embraer E195-E2 from the airport.
Organization
Porter Airlines is majority owned by Porter Aviation Holdings. In 2009, Porter's institutional investors include EdgeStone Capital Partners, Borealis Infrastructure, GE Asset Management Incorporated and Dancap Private Equity Inc. In 2013, Porter's investors are listed as EdgeStone Capital Partners, OMERS Strategic Investments, GE Asset Management Incorporated and Dancap Private Equity Inc.
The then REGCO Holdings purchased the Toronto Island Airport assets of City Centre Aviation Ltd in 2005. This included the terminal used by Air Canada's Jazz airline, which at the time operated daily flights to Ottawa from the airport. On February 15, 2006, Air Canada had announced that its contract to operate its Jazz airline service out of the terminal at the airport had been terminated. On February 27, 2006, REGCO was able to evict Jazz from the airport. Air Canada took the case to court but lost an Ontario Superior Court ruling. REGCO's fully owned subsidiary 'City Centre Aviation' (later Porter FBO) then commenced renovations of the terminal building to serve Porter Airlines, which started flights in October 2006.
A new subsidiary, City Centre Terminal Corp., was set up in 2009 to manage Porter's new terminal at the island airport. The new terminal's cost of construction was estimated at million. The first half of the new terminal opened on March 7, 2010. The terminal was completed in early 2011. The new terminal has eleven gates, two lounges, check-in and security areas, and food outlets.
The airline's mascot is a stylised raccoon named "Mr. Porter". The raccoon appears in Porter newspaper ads. Porter also advertises on radio, using an announcer. The design of staff uniforms is based on 1960s standards of airline fashion. Porter has 933 employees as of March 31, 2010.
Porter was initially organized as a private company. On April 16, 2010, Porter Aviation Holdings announced they were going to be listed as a publicly traded company. The company filed a preliminary prospectus — a business plan — with securities commissions across the country, a requirement before it can offer shares. The company has $306million of debt and leases and intended to raise $120million of new shares in the company and order seven new Q400 planes. However, after twice delaying the final deadline for the offering, and lowering its share price from between $6 and $7 per share to $5.50, Porter cancelled the initial public offering. According to Robert Deluce, "We came to the conclusion that it was really prudent to defer the offering at this time and to wait until better market conditions existed. We wanted to raise some capital. We thought the IPO was the way to go, but we weren't prepared in any way to sell our stock at just any price".
The media had openly speculated on the profitability of Porter as being a money-losing operation, as would be typical of a start-up. CEO Deluce had been asked by the media to provide information on the financial status of Porter, but declined. In its prospectus, the company outlined a loss of million on revenues of million for 2009. To be profitable, the airline needs to be filling 49.3% of its seats with paying customers. In 2009, the airline filled 41% of its seats, and in the first quarter of 2010, it filled 47%. Overall, the airline carried 900,000 passengers in 2009, 800,000 through Toronto island airport. In 2011, the airline filled 55.9% of its seats. As part of disclosure for its public offering, Porter disclosed that from its startup in 2006 until May 2010, Porter lost million. In an interview with Toronto Life magazine in May 2013, Robert Deluce stated that Porter turned a profit in 2011 and 2012, and paid out profit sharing.
Porter sold the terminal at Toronto–Billy Bishop in Toronto to Nieuport Aviation Infrastructure Partners GP in January 2015. According to Deluce, this meant that the airline was debt-free, although it would now pay to lease the facility. The sale was estimated to be in the range of million. Being debt-free was considered a good position to be in if it were to buy Bombardier CS100 jets to use at the island airport. However, in November 2015, the Government of Canada announced it would not support the expansion of the island airport to support the jets.
Controversies
Porter Airlines' launch was controversial, as it pitted Toronto residents seeking to close or stop the expansion of the airport against business interests and a government agency determined to make the airport self-sufficient. In 2002, the 'Toronto City Centre Airport', or 'Island Airport', operated by the Toronto Port Authority (TPA) (renamed in 2015 as "PortsToronto") was subsidized by per year. Only Air Canada flew flights from the airport as part of its Jazz service, operating daily flights to Ottawa after the closure of the regional airline City Express in 1991. In October 2002, the TPA announced a million plan of improvements to the airport to expand its usage. The TPA planned to build a million bridge and a million airport terminal. A new regional airline would be launched at the airport, to be run by Robert Deluce, the former CEO of Air Ontario. Since its opening, the airport, located on Toronto Island, was accessible by passenger ferry only and the ferry-only access was seen as an obstacle to expansion. In a deal with the City of Toronto government, the TPA's plans were approved by Toronto City Council in November 2002.
The TPA's plans were opposed by neighbouring residents and community associations who together formed the Community Air special interest group to fight the expansion. The expansion became a primary issue in the 2003 Toronto municipal election. Mayoral candidates Barbara Hall and John Tory supported the bridge and David Miller opposed it. Miller and a slate of like-minded candidates for council ran on a common platform, the centrepiece of which was to stop the bridge. After Miller was elected mayor in November 2003, the new council voted to cancel the previous Council's decision, stopping the bridge project. Concerns raised include safety. The airport's main runway is long, shorter than Bombardier's specifications for a fully loaded Q400. Porter solved this problem by fitting the planes for 70 passengers, less than the maximum load of 78 passengers. There are several cautions to pilots flying into the airport, including boat masts, a nearby wind turbine, and no-fly areas. The flight path into the airport requires the airplanes to fly an approach offset from the runway centre-line to avoid nearby hazards such as tall chimneys and buildings.