Porter Airlines is expanding its presence at the Ottawa International Airport, announcing Thursday it plans to add a new crew base at the airport later this year.
The Toronto-based carrier said it will establish a new base at YOW in June for pilots and flight attendants who staff its new Embraer E195-E2 aircraft. Porter said the base will serve about 150 crew members.
The airline also said it plans to add new crew bases in Montreal and Vancouver later this year that will each serve about 100 employees.
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“These new bases will provide significant opportunities for crew who want to live close to where they work,” Porter executive vice-president and chief operating officer Kent Woodside said in a statement.
“Local crew can better support Porter’s commitment to operational reliability and ultimately provide an even more elevated level of service for our passengers.”
The latest announcement comes after the airline said in December it plans to boost capacity on eight routes from the nation’s capital to key destinations in Canada and the U.S. this spring and summer amid rising demand for air travel. Porter says it will operate 14 non-stop flights from Ottawa this summer.
The new crew base will add to the airline’s growing operations at Ottawa International Airport.
Porter’s future plans for YOW include building two new aircraft hangars totalling 150,000 square feet, a $65-million project that was announced in November 2022.
The facility will be the primary maintenance base for the Embraer E195-E2 fleet and support maintenance of the De Havilland Dash 8-400 aircraft. It’s also expected to employ hundreds of workers.
Porter currently employs about 650 pilots and 775 cabin crew operating from an Embraer E195-E2 crew base at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport as well as Dash 8-400 crew bases at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport and terminals in Ottawa, Halifax and Thunder Bay.
The airline says it will have about 2,000 total crew members by the end of 2024.
