When Porter Airlines launched in 2006, its first route was a short hop between Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport and Ottawa. Two decades later, the airline has grown from a regional carrier into a major player in the aviation market – and an increasingly important economic force for the region.
Porter’s success: The numbers tell the story
In summer 2019, Porter operated five destinations from Ottawa International Airport (YOW), with 158 departures a week. This past August the airline served 23 destinations, with 250 weekly departures – an average of 36 flights a day.
The transformation is even more pronounced in winter. In March 2019, Porter served seven destinations from Ottawa, with just one in the U.S. or beyond. In March 2027 its schedule includes 31 destinations, including seven in the U.S., three in Mexico and six in the Caribbean.
That growth reflects a fundamental change in the airline itself. Porter has evolved from a regional carrier constrained by the range of its turboprop fleet into a North American airline operating both turboprops and jets.
For Ottawa, the impact goes beyond giving business and leisure travellers more choices.
Putting down roots at the Ottawa International Airport
Porter Airlines has made a significant commitment to YOW, opening a 150,000-square-foot aircraft maintenance base in May 2024. The facility employs nearly 120 people, including approximately 90 aircraft maintenance engineers, along with technicians, store clerks and administrative staff.
The investment is also helping build a local talent pipeline.
Porter Airlines and Algonquin College have expanded a partnership focused on employment, talent development, hands-on training and aviation programs, including aircraft maintenance technician and aviation management. The college and airline have also established scholarships and awards supporting 10 second-year aircraft maintenance students annually.
“Our collaboration with Porter Airlines is a cornerstone of our strategy to integrate industry-leading practices into our curriculum and provide our students with unmatched real-world experience,” says Algonquin College President Claude Brulé.
It’s a telling example of how an airline’s expansion can ripple through the broader economy, creating demand not only for flights but for skilled workers, training and aviation infrastructure.
Porter is also working with the Ottawa International Airport Authority to evolve the role YOW plays in the regional economy: Rather than functioning primarily as an origin-and-destination airport, the goal is to develop Ottawa into a preferred North American connecting hub.
“Connecting passengers play a critical role in supporting routes that local demand alone can’t sustain,” says YOW Vice-President of Business Development and Marketing Joel Tkach. “When you build more connection opportunities, you strengthen Ottawa-Gatineau’s links to major business and leisure markets across North America. That’s how a network grows, and it’s exactly why Porter’s strategy here is so important.
Porter’s growth story is not finished
The airline has approximately 22 more jets on order, with purchase rights for another 25. It is also expanding partnerships, including a maturing joint venture with Air Transat to feed that airline’s Ottawa-London Gatwick route, along with greater access to the networks of American Airlines, a founding partner of the global Oneworld Alliance, and Alaska Airlines, a giant on the U.S. West Coast.
For Ottawa’s business community, the significance is straightforward: airlines invest where they see opportunity. Porter’s expanding network, aircraft fleet, maintenance operation and workforce commitments suggest it sees plenty of it here.
What began as a single regional route in 2006 has become something much bigger – an airline building infrastructure, jobs, connections and a growing aviation ecosystem in Ottawa.
With Porter’s expansion and the Ottawa airport’s growing network, the pieces are in place to strengthen the region’s position as a more connected, competitive and increasingly important aviation hub.
