WideBodyroga From United States of America, joined Sep 2008, 472 posts, RR: 4 Posted (3 years 1 month 3 weeks 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 16348 times:
I love lengthy trip reports but unfortunately due to lack of time I would have to keep this one fairly short, and I will let the photos do most of the talking. I was fortunate to fly on Porter airlines the day after they opened their brand new terminal at Toronto Island Airport (YTZ) and I would like to share my experience I had with them. To my knowledge, there are two more TRs on PD on a.net, but both of them came before the opening on the new facility at this unique and exciting airport.
I had to be in Montreal for a couple of days (I was intending to attend a Garou concert at Joliette a town about an hour northeast of Montreal) and I was very excited to find out that PD was offering me the best deal out of Chicago (MDW in particular), with a stopover at YTZ.
Fast-forward to the day of departure. I had no idea about the new terminal at YTZ until I was told so at check in, which only excited me more. I was annoyed by the lack of windows at our gate (A3) as I was very eager to have a good look at PD's Q400. The flight was a breeze, the load factor was about 50%, the crew very nice and friendly. We were offered the customary snack box and the 1.5 hours to YTZ went by in no time.
Porter check in counter at MDW
Cabin view on boarding
Chicken wrap and salad
Fried veggie chips and beer
...or wine (Both photos are actually from the second leg. No alcohol was served on the morning flight from MDW).
Generous leg room for a 6'3'' person
Flying over Detroit
I was fortunate to be sitting on the left side of the aircraft so I had a really nice view of Toronto’s skyline on approach and just before touchdown. The views of the skyline were spectacular from anywhere in the small airport and it has hard to put my camera down.
Moments before touchdown
Great views
The old tower building
We had decided to make our layover at YTZ long enough to allow us a visit to downtown, so after clearing immigration we headed to the ferry terminal. The crossing took barely a couple of minutes and at the other end we were waited by PD’s complimentary bus to downtown. After spending a couple of hours there, we decided that it was time to head back and check out the lounge.
Ferry terminal on the island side
The ferry in the middle of its barely 2-minute long crossing.
Porter's complimentary bus to and from downtown
The lounge was made up of several cubicles with 4 comfortable seats and a table, huge armchairs near the windows, a desk with PD representatives ready to take care of any passengers’ issues, a internet unit (with about 20 or so terminals) and a complimentary refreshments area. There are 10 or so gates in the new building and they can be reached through one of three Doors, labeled A, B and C.
Porter's lounge
More views of the waiting area
The information desk with the refreshments area on the background
Internet area
Free refreshment time!
How about a cold drink?
FIDS
Views to the apron
Our bird at YTZ
The flight to Montreal (YUL) was uneventful and the only difference compared to the one from MDW was that we were served complimentary alcohol (Beer or wine) and a fried veggie snack rather a lunch box. The crew on both flights (and also the two return flights, which I will not cover here) was excellent and very helpful with any requests.
View of Parc Olympique on approach
Our bird at YUL
Overall it was a great experience flight with PD, I would now list them as one of my very favorite airlines and I look forward to fly with them again.
And by the way, Montreal is a great city, I would recommend it to anyone. I bet it is even better during the summer.
Notre Dame Basilica Interior
ICAO bulding
Old Port
I apologize for the brevity of this TR. I will be more than happy to answer any specific questions regarding any aspect of this trip that I have not covered.
Thank you Porter!
Visit my aviation page: http://widebodyroga.weebly.com/
thegreatRDU From United States of America, joined Mar 2006, 2273 posts, RR: 3 Reply 1, posted (3 years 1 month 3 weeks 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 15774 times:
Hell yea nice TR
The photos were great
PD just blows similar competition out of the water...
WideBodyroga From United States of America, joined Sep 2008, 472 posts, RR: 4 Reply 4, posted (3 years 1 month 3 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 13903 times:
Thanks for your comments guys!
Quoting Fly2YYZ (Reply 3): Hope you enjoyed the Garou concert! I wouldnt imagine many people know about Garou in the US! Did you enjoy the performance!?
The concert was excellent! Even better than I expected. He is a great live performer and he manages to get the audience involved. We must have been the only people from the US there. Too bad Garou is not better known around here. He is on a European tour this summer. Anyone in France or Belgium should consider attending one of his concerts.
Visit my aviation page: http://widebodyroga.weebly.com/
Fauzi From Brunei, joined Jul 2005, 199 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (3 years 3 weeks 5 days 10 hours ago) and read 12760 times:
Nice TR! Landing in YTZ seems interesting and fun with all those views! I've never landed at an airport in the middle of the city. Interesting to note that PD can keep the fares down despite providing all those complimentary shuttles etc.
Quoting PlaneHunter (Reply 2): Short, but nice report. It always amazes me to see what porter airlines serves on its short flights. Legroom is generous, too.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't PD forced to reduce their capacity in the Q400s to 70, instead of 78 because of runway restrictions? Thus the generous legroom.
Widebodyroga From United States of America, joined Sep 2008, 472 posts, RR: 4 Reply 7, posted (1 year 3 months 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 6170 times:
I'm bringing this thread back to life as I realized that I never addressed some of the comments. My apologies for that.
Quoting Fauzi (Reply 5):
Nice TR! Landing in YTZ seems interesting and fun with all those views! I've never landed at an airport in the middle of the city. Interesting to note that PD can keep the fares down despite providing all those complimentary shuttles etc.
Thanks Fauzi. Landing in the middle of skysrappers was indeed spectacular and I think that it would have been even more so if the weather was better. Flying to Canada from Chicago is unreasonably expensive and while PD is no exception, it often offers much cheaper fares than its competition.
Quoting Fauzi (Reply 5): Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't PD forced to reduce their capacity in the Q400s to 70, instead of 78 because of runway restrictions? Thus the generous legroom.
Actually I am not sure about that but I think you may be right.
Porter looks like a great airline to me, and I would love to try them out some day. The pics were nice as well.
Thanks for sharing
Thanks Jonas, I have been looking forward to fly PD again. Too bad that I have no reason to go to Canada right now... Plus I still haven't flown with AC so I may have to give them priority...
Quoting thegreatRDU (Reply 1): Hell yea nice TR
The photos were great
PD just blows similar competition out of the water...
Thanks! I appreciate that. Indeed PD is a special little airline. The product they offer is at a completely different level compared to everybody else.
Quoting PlaneHunter (Reply 2): Short, but nice report. It always amazes me to see what Porter Airlines serves on its short flights. Legroom is generous, too.
Thanks PH. I'd love to see PD fly longer routes with some bigger birds providing this kind of service... They'd be seeing me a lot!
Visit my aviation page: http://widebodyroga.weebly.com/
globalflyer From United States of America, joined Dec 2005, 801 posts, RR: 2 Reply 8, posted (1 year 3 months 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 5675 times:
Hey Stojan...thanks for bringing this back because I missed it the first time. Great TR. I would love to sample PD. I did used to work in YUL and it is a fantastic city. Very open and very lively. Cheers Will
Landing on every Continent almost on an annual basis!
lukeyboy95 From Papua New Guinea, joined Apr 2008, 951 posts, RR: 35 Reply 9, posted (1 year 3 months 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 5636 times:
Brilliant report on what I find to be a very interesting airline flying out of a brilliant airport.
When I was in Toronto I spotted a bit at this airport, and thought the views would be excellent. Alot of the AC overfly the airport before final descent too.
Two questions - was the ferry free only for ferry users( I know it also connects to the rest of the island), and was that lounge access included in the flight fees? Perhaps you mentioned.
EASTERN747 From United States of America, joined Oct 2006, 377 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (1 year 3 months 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 5477 times:
I have many friends in YUL, and loved to visit when I could. I also had a vacation home there outside Montreal near Mirabel. I was on passes.......I just checked the fares from Chicago, and they are outrageous. It's the fees and taxes. I can fly to London for the same price.....Did you ever read the fees and taxes.....I'll fly to Vermont and drive......
Widebodyroga From United States of America, joined Sep 2008, 472 posts, RR: 4 Reply 11, posted (1 year 3 months 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 5459 times:
Quoting globalflyer (Reply 8): Hey Stojan...thanks for bringing this back because I missed it the first time. Great TR. I would love to sample PD. I did used to work in YUL and it is a fantastic city. Very open and very lively. Cheers Will
Hey William. Thanks for your comment! In all honestly I regret putting this TR together in such a hurry. I wish I had waited and done a better job with it. I have so many more photos for it and so many more details about the trip that I could have provided. Maybe I should do a remake? The best I can do I guess is add some more of the photos below.
We loved Montreal too. Friendly people, very pleasant city and some really good food. We were lucky that the weather was pretty decent despite being the middle of March.
Quoting lukeyboy95 (Reply 9): Brilliant report on what I find to be a very interesting airline flying out of a brilliant airport.
When I was in Toronto I spotted a bit at this airport, and thought the views would be excellent. Alot of the AC overfly the airport before final descent too.
Two questions - was the ferry free only for ferry users( I know it also connects to the rest of the island), and was that lounge access included in the flight fees? Perhaps you mentioned.
Great report.
Rgds
Luke
Thanks for your kind words Luke. I am pretty sure that you can use the ferry even if you are not a passenger. No one checked to see if we had tickets. So next time you are over in Toronto you can go there and visit YTZ's landside area (if of course you're not flying which would be even better!). There is even a PD-run bus that will pick you up from downtown and take you to the ferry landing. That was back in the day when only PD flew out of there. Not sure what the situation is now that AC is also involved - probably they have their own bus. If you want to access the rest of the island you cannot use the airport ferry however as there is no way to get from the airport terminal to the inhabited part of the island (you'd have to somehow get access to the airside, cross the runway and then probably jump over a fence). There are some other boats that can get you to the rest of the island though but they depart from a different spot - near Bay Street I think. Just like you mentioned, we also overflew the airport before landing there on our way from MDW, which was great for photos as you can imagine. The lounge access was free for all PD passengers. No additional fee was required.
Quoting EASTERN747 (Reply 10): I have many friends in YUL, and loved to visit when I could. I also had a vacation home there outside Montreal near Mirabel. I was on passes.......I just checked the fares from Chicago, and they are outrageous. It's the fees and taxes. I can fly to London for the same price.....Did you ever read the fees and taxes.....I'll fly to Vermont and drive......
Agreed. Flying from Chicago to any Canadian city is disproportionaly expensive. The flights I describe above cost about US$400 and at the time they were the cheapest deal; much cheaper that AA, UA, CA or anyone else.
And since I found the rest of the photos from the trip here there are some:
Embassy Suites Montreal:
.
Thanks!
Visit my aviation page: http://widebodyroga.weebly.com/
lukeyboy95 From Papua New Guinea, joined Apr 2008, 951 posts, RR: 35 Reply 12, posted (1 year 3 months 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 5446 times:
Quoting Widebodyroga (Reply 11): Thanks for your kind words Luke. I am pretty sure that you can use the ferry even if you are not a passenger. No one checked to see if we had tickets. So next time you are over in Toronto you can go there and visit YTZ's landside area (if of course you're not flying which would be even better!). There is even a PD-run bus that will pick you up from downtown and take you to the ferry landing. That was back in the day when only PD flew out of there. Not sure what the situation is now that AC is also involved - probably they have their own bus. If you want to access the rest of the island you cannot use the airport ferry however as there is no way to get from the airport terminal to the inhabited part of the island (you'd have to somehow get access to the airside, cross the runway and then probably jump over a fence). There are some other boats that can get you to the rest of the island though but they depart from a different spot - near Bay Street I think. Just like you mentioned, we also overflew the airport before landing there on our way from MDW, which was great for photos as you can imagine. The lounge access was free for all PD passengers. No additional fee was required.
Gosh, amazing service from PD. And thanks for a detailed reply.
Widebodyroga From United States of America, joined Sep 2008, 472 posts, RR: 4 Reply 15, posted (1 year 3 months 5 hours ago) and read 4949 times:
Quoting MSS658 (Reply 13):
Great trip report, thanks for sharing!
Porter looks great, makes me feel bad I'm flying AC next week between Montreal and Toronto-City centre!
Great Montreal pics as well!
Greetings
Marc
Thanks Marc. I'll be looking forward to your AC report from YTZ (I'm assuming you'll be putting one together?)
Quoting ORDnHKG (Reply 14):
Hi, I am curious about is the lounge only for departing pax ? Can arrival pax access the lounge as well before they take the ferry ?
Hey ORDnHKG. Hm, I am not entirely sure but I think it is the case. I remember that both times I arrived at YTZ I could go to the lounge, even though the first time I was not connecting immediately to another flight. There is no-one checking boarding passes so anyone can walk in and out as far as I can remember. Maybe Marc (see above) can tell us for sure since he will be visiting YTZ next week.
WBodyroga
Visit my aviation page: http://widebodyroga.weebly.com/
9w748capt From United States of America, joined Feb 2008, 409 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (1 year 3 months 2 hours ago) and read 4900 times:
Wow - amazing report and service! Thank you for reviving this as I also missed it the first time around. I wonder if their service levels have remained the same - or have they tailed off? Really looks like an amazing airline and quite convenient if you're going to downtown Toronto. Thanks for sharing!
EL-AL From Israel, joined Oct 2001, 1119 posts, RR: 5 Reply 17, posted (1 year 2 months 4 weeks 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 4713 times:
Hey,
Thank you for very nice report. No doubt Porter has fantastic product for short howl flights, yet their price is pretty high - when I was checking fares from Toronto to Newark, price was almost 300 CAD one way!
Thx for shearing - love those photos from Montreal, I really should visit Quebec again, feels like Europe in north America.
Jonathan
"In our country, those who do not believe in miracles are irrational" - David Ben Gurion.
WestJet747 From Canada, joined Aug 2011, 1256 posts, RR: 7 Reply 18, posted (1 year 2 months 4 weeks 1 day 14 hours ago) and read 4638 times:
Quoting ORDnHKG (Reply 14): Hi, I am curious about is the lounge only for departing pax ? Can arrival pax access the lounge as well before they take the ferry ?
Nope. The sliding glass doors between the lounge and the gates is only one-way (unless you scan an employee badge). So after disembarking you have to follow the hall straight to baggage.
Quoting 9w748capt (Reply 16): I wonder if their service levels have remained the same - or have they tailed off?
I flew about 3 weeks ago YTZ-YOW-YTZ and service was still fantastic!
Quoting EL-AL (Reply 17): yet their price is pretty high - when I was checking fares from Toronto to Newark, price was almost 300 CAD one way!
One-way usually starts between $245-$265 (taxes included). You must have picked a flight that was already partially full. But Porter does like to have sales pretty frequently so it isn't hard to find a significantly cheaper fare (if you can afford to wait).
Jean Leloup From Canada, joined Apr 2001, 2106 posts, RR: 23 Reply 19, posted (1 year 2 months 4 weeks 18 hours ago) and read 4431 times:
I was an early adopter of Porter but have since moved out of the area, so I haven't seen the new terminal.
This report was great, but there's one thing I have difficulty grasping, without seeing an actual map of the terminal (which doesn't seem to exist, as Porter doesn't have one on the site and the airport itself doesn't really have a website): Now that AC is using the terminal, how are the AC passengers kept away from all the amentities/goodies for the PD passengers? My understanding is that basically the whole waiting area is essentially the "Porter Lounge", so where to the AC pax wait?
JL
p.s. If anyone acutally HAS seen a map, I'd be pleased if you could share it!
Widebodyroga From United States of America, joined Sep 2008, 472 posts, RR: 4 Reply 22, posted (1 year 2 months 3 weeks 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 3635 times:
Thanks for the additional comments guys! This TR got twice as many responses this second time round than it did originally. Maybe I should revive more of my older TRs...
Quoting 9w748capt (Reply 16): Wow - amazing report and service! Thank you for reviving this as I also missed it the first time around. I wonder if their service levels have remained the same - or have they tailed off? Really looks like an amazing airline and quite convenient if you're going to downtown Toronto. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks 9w748capt! (can I call you captain for short? )
From what I hear PD is still offering the same high level of service to this day, which is great. We need such airlines to keep the old aviation traditions alive.
Thank you for very nice report. No doubt Porter has fantastic product for short howl flights, yet their price is pretty high - when I was checking fares from Toronto to Newark, price was almost 300 CAD one way!
Thx for shearing - love those photos from Montreal, I really should visit Quebec again, feels like Europe in north America.
Jonathan
Hey Jonathan. Thanks for your kind words. I'm glad you liked the report. As I mentioned earlier I do too find their prices to be a bit steep but in comparison to their competition from ORD they are no more expensive than UA, CA or AA, which as we know do not offer the same kind of service.
I agree about Quebec feeling a bit like Europe. It feels kinda confusing when you get there
Quoting WestJet747 (Reply 18): Nope. The sliding glass doors between the lounge and the gates is only one-way (unless you scan an employee badge). So after disembarking you have to follow the hall straight to baggage.
That's right, Now that you mention it it makes sense. Thanks for clarifying this WJ747.
Quoting WestJet747 (Reply 18): I flew about 3 weeks ago YTZ-YOW-YTZ and service was still fantastic!
That's great. Thumbs up to that!
Quoting Jean Leloup (Reply 19): This report was great, but there's one thing I have difficulty grasping, without seeing an actual map of the terminal (which doesn't seem to exist, as Porter doesn't have one on the site and the airport itself doesn't really have a website): Now that AC is using the terminal, how are the AC passengers kept away from all the amentities/goodies for the PD passengers? My understanding is that basically the whole waiting area is essentially the "Porter Lounge", so where to the AC pax wait?
JL
p.s. If anyone acutally HAS seen a map, I'd be pleased if you could share it!
Thanks Jean! As YYZatchboy clarified below AC pax are also allowed to the lounge. I'm sure Marc will give us more details pretty soon in his TR about YTZ with AC.
I haven't seen a map of YTZ yet. It is somewhat weird that there isn't one.
Quoting YYZatcboy (Reply 20): The AC pax get access to the lounge too.
parton87 From Sweden, joined Sep 2008, 524 posts, RR: 2 Reply 23, posted (1 year 2 months 3 weeks 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 3620 times:
Hello!
Thanks for the great report! Porter looks like a really good airline.Hope they will cope from the competition they got from AC Express! Love the pictures from Toronto and Montreal. Looks like nice cities both of them!
Amazing! I would love to fly to that airport one day!
Reading your comments it seems that Porter´s fares are pretty high, not strange thinking of their great service but what´s does the fares on other airlines usually be between Chicago and Toronto?
Widebodyroga From United States of America, joined Sep 2008, 472 posts, RR: 4 Reply 24, posted (1 year 2 months 3 weeks 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 3536 times:
Thanks for the great report! Porter looks like a really good airline.Hope they will cope from the competition they got from AC Express! Love the pictures from Toronto and Montreal. Looks like nice cities both of them!
Thanks for your kind words Robert! I appreciate it.
Quoting parton87 (Reply 23): Amazing! I would love to fly to that airport one day!
Reading your comments it seems that Porter´s fares are pretty high, not strange thinking of their great service but what´s does the fares on other airlines usually be between Chicago and Toronto?
Thanks again!
YTZ deserves a visit from every aviation enthusiast. What made it even more special for me is the short "crossing" on the ferry. It's kind of interesting how there is an ongoing dispute about the construction of a bridge that would connect the island to the mainland. I personally would prefer it if it stayed that way. It makes YTZ even more special.
A quick search for return flights between CHI and TOR (any airports between these cities, i.e. ORD, MDW, YYZ and YTZ) shows that PD is on average a mere $20-30 more expensive than AA, UA or AC (US$430 vs US$450/60). I'm not sure about their prices from elsewhere though. I wish I knew why flights from Chicago to Canada are so expensive (in relation to the distance). One can fly to other cities in the US that are further away from Chicago just for a fraction of these prices.
Visit my aviation page: http://widebodyroga.weebly.com/
Jean Leloup From Canada, joined Apr 2001, 2106 posts, RR: 23 Reply 25, posted (1 year 2 months 3 weeks 19 hours ago) and read 3238 times:
There is no longer any debate over a bridge, actually, as a pedestrian and utility tunnel is currently under construction. The ferry will remainn for service vehicles. What I don't know is whether they will still let passengers take the ferry just for fun once the tunnel is open. Obviously there will be far fewer sailings.
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I'd love to see PD fly longer routes with some bigger birds providing this kind of service... They'd be seeing me a lot!
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The best I can do I guess is add some more of the photos below.
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