Yesterday, Thursday (2), Porter Airlines inaugurated direct flights between Toronto-Pearson and Tampa International Airport. This is the first U.S. service operated by the Embraer E195-E2 aircraft, a model of which Porter is a launch customer in North America, with 22 aircraft in service – and another 28 awaiting delivery, more 50 options.
Flight PD-527 departed from Toronto’s Lester Pearson Airport at 4:51 p.m. local time and arrived at Tampa Airport at 7:31 p.m., after two hours and 40 minutes. informed Aviacionline.
Toronto is one of the major international markets outside of Tampa and the airline competes in this segment with Air Canada, WestJet and Lynx Air. Porter Airlines will offer 1,848 weekly seats to and from Tampa.
Tampa is the first of five destinations and seven itineraries that Porter will launch in Florida during the Northern Hemisphere winter. The schedule includes service from Toronto to Tampa, Fort Myers, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Miami; as well as flights from Ottawa to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando. In total, the company will have an offer of 12,936 weekly seats between Canada and Florida.
Porter’s U.S. expansion focuses on key vacation markets for Canadian travelers. In addition to the new service to Florida, the airline will serve Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas.
Porter’s Embraer E195-E2 has a capacity of 132 seats in an exclusive economy class configuration and offers free Wi-Fi to all passengers.
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