Porter Airlines to offer Saskatoon-Toronto Pearson route starting in May

Saskatoon will have another flight option starting in May as Porter Airlines establishes a Toronto Pearson-Saskatoon route.

Brad Cicero, director of communications with Porter Airlines, said the company has been expanding over the past year.

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“Over the last 12 months it’s really been a focus on growing throughout North America,” Cicero said.

He said Porter has mostly been operating in the eastern part of Canada and northeastern United States.

The flight starts on May 16, with Cicero saying with this flight in place the company will be serving every province in the country.

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He said new markets like Saskatoon may not know much about Porter Airlines, but said the company was established back in 2006 and has developed a good customer base.

Cicero said a route to Toronto opens the door for more connecting flights for any travellers in Saskatchewan.

Porter Airlines has accepted 29 new aircraft over the past 12 months and is looking at 20 more this year, which Cicero said is a lot for any airline to take on.

“We’ll be looking almost every month to add to the service that we have in the market.”

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He said it is not a low-cost airline but said there’s a great opportunity for Porter Airlines in Saskatoon.

CJ Dushinski, vice president of business development and service quality for the Saskatoon Airport, said Porter has been doing a lot of business-type travel out East and has been very successful.

Dushinski said the airport has been in talks with Porter Airlines for the past several years trying to devise a plan to establish them in Saskatoon.

She said Porter has a great partnership with Air Transat, so connections with Porter into Europe are a good option for travellers.

“We hope to grow. We hope that we can connect into maybe their Vancouver hub that they are building right now and potentially into the United States. There’s a lot of opportunity there.”

Dushinski said the past several years have been about rebuilding the travel market in Saskatchewan due to the pandemic.

“It’s not an overnight thing. Typically these conversations with airlines can take months or even years. So we’re just really getting to the point where we’re seeing the fruition of a lot of those conversations that we’ve been having over the last several years.”