Porter Airlines Bag Fee Likely To Be Matched, Air Experts Say

Fasten your seatbelts – for some, the cost of flying has just gone up.

Porter Airlines is now charging passengers a $25 fee for their first checked bag on domestic flights, the first Canadian airline to do so.

And it may not be the last. As long as consumers keep clamouring for cheap fares, airlines will find new ways to make money off our travel.

Private pilots say Porter’s pushing them out of island airport

A group of private pilots who fly out of Toronto’s island airport have turned to the Federal Court, claiming the local port authority has failed in its oversight role by allowing Porter Airlines to evict them from its hangars.

There are no hangars devoted to general aviation on the island, so many private pilots, flight schools and other businesses who use Toronto’s Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport rent space from the airport’s main tenant, Porter Airlines.

Cool your jets

1. The runway extension being proposed would have to be longer than advertised.

Island airport boosters laughed when opponent Adam Vaughan declared that lengthening the main runway by 168 metres on each end amounts to paving the lake. For a little perspective: that’s roughly the length of four football fields. But that’s only the half of it. As we speak, Transport Canada is considering changing its “runway end safety area” regs, which would require extending the runway further into the lake, probably by a few hundred more feet.

Rob Ford straps in for jet fight

Mayor Rob Ford is on board with Porter Airlines’ push to expand Billy Bishop Airport, telling reporters on Thursday he sees no downside to the proposal that critics say could ruin the waterfront.

 

A day earlier, the upstart airline announced plans to purchase up to 30 Bombardier jet planes, which are currently banned from flying out of the island airport. The aircraft would allow the company to serve new destinations that are too far for its current turboprop fleet, but to do so the jet ban would have to be lifted and the airport’s runways extended further into the lake. 

Pushback against Porter begins

Councillors and at least one community group are vowing to fight plans to expand operations at Toronto’s island airport.

 

At a press conference Wednesday, Porter Airlines announced plans to purchase up to 30 CS100 jet planes, which would allow the company to add more than a dozen destinations to the list of 19 cities it serves. Locations the company is eyeing include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Miami, and Nassau, in the Bahamas.

Porter Airlines workers set up picket lines outside Toronto island airport

Porter Airlines reported no delays in its flight schedule on Thursday after workers who fuel planes at Toronto’s island airport walked off the job.

“No problems at all,” said Jeff Swystun, who arrived on a morning flight from Ottawa. “The flight was actually ahead of schedule.”