It's crazy how Porter has expanded in the last year or so, especially considering it's conservative operations from it's inception in 2006 until now. Nothing like a Jetsgo, Flair, or Lynx, just throwing darts at odd city pairings to see what would stick, and using the completely wrong aircraft for some of its routes. Porter may have always had larger ambitions, but stayed with just the turboprops and a limited route network for a long time (I know they had a lot of drama over YTZ, the runway, etc., but they still could have leased jet aircraft if they really wanted, and could have launch a poorly planned jet expansion across the country, but they were restrained and didn't want to take a risky chance). But they didn't, and waited. But then once they started, omg it's been a torrent of expansion to so many markets, and so quickly. Maybe I am wearing rose coloured glasses, but I feel like their being in operation for many years before expanding was smart, it built up the expertise. It's just shocking to see an airline that did so little for so long all of a sudden become a real competitor on some routes (their presence on transcontinental routes to YVR and YYC is still very minor compared to AC and WS, but on some of these leisure routes, they will be at similar capacity to WS and F9, and not THAT behind AC. AC is still way out ahead in seats/frequency to places like ORL, FLL, TPA etc., but it's nowhere near the imbalance of say YYZ-YYC. On that route, Porter operates 3x daily E90s, way below both WS and AC offerings (~8 daily each, and with larger aircraft). But their overall growth rate is really impressive at the moment, quite a bold move. Hopefully they are doing it smartly and there's some solid performance for all of this extra capacity.
As an aside... I always knew Florida was important for Southern Ontario and Quebec travel wise. And I'm not sure if what I'm seeing is typical, but looking at the # of flights between YYZ and YUL and various Florida destinations is ridiculous, it's huge! And there's soooo many more destinations there than I ever thought. Tons of carriers, tons of frequency, and in AC's case, heavy aircraft deployed quite often. Although I someone will have to inform me on why FLL gets mainline A330s multiple times a day, and Miami gets narrow body Rouge?! Again, I'm ignorant on Florida and the market dynamics, but as a Vancouverite, I see Miami as this big major metropolis, with an impressive international airport and a massive global reach. So for AC use the lowest calibre of their offerings (Rouge) and with lower seats to MIA than to FLL seemed confusing to me. FLL is obviously the bigger draw for one or more reasons, the math is obviously correct and shows the higher demand is to FLL by a wide margin, just surprising for an outsider to see.
Orlando I can see (it is globally renowned as a tourist destination, even way out here in the Wild West we know about Orlando lol, and then of course Miami, but Fort Lauderdale isn't even on the radar. And from the looks of FLL's Wiki page, although it has some impressive international carriers and connections, it is just an operating base for Allegiant Air and Spirit Airlines, not surprising. So to see AC operate some go its largest mainline aircraft operate the route is funny to see. I know AC needs to do something with its A330s especially in winter, I never would have thought FLL would be the place to put them, especially over Miami. But as I said, I know nothing about the market and demographics, and have no personal knowledge at all, this was just my uneducated, uninformed first impression, and surprise that FLL is better served than MIA itself.
But ya, overall crazy capacity there, and more seems to get added all the time. Funny compared to Californian destinations in general. Such a different beast than California. LAX barely has any competition from the other airports of the region like Burbank, Orange County, etc. when it comes to out of country service. I know there's a ton of geographic differences between Florida and California, namely proximity to more major markets overseas. But for a region the size of LAX to really only have one airport that goes anywhere outside the country is surprising. Then look at the Bay Area, Oakland is barely served, definitely not international (other than some Mexico, because it's California and the demographics support that). Just so different from the heavy concentration of connected airports in close proximity in Florida.
Threaded Mode