Porter Airlines will offer a direct route from Ottawa to Victoria beginning in May, the airline announced Tuesday.
Starting May 15, service between Ottawa International Airport (YOW) and Victoria International Airport (YYJ) will operate for the summer season with up to four weekly roundtrip flights, Porter said in a news release. The flights will be on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
“We are excited to welcome another route connecting Ottawa non-stop to British Columbia. Porter’s new service to Victoria will provide ‘capital’ coverage from coast-to-coast through YOW. This service is ideal for both origin and destination travellers, as well as those making connections at YOW for places beyond,” said Joel Tkach, vice-president of business development, marketing and customer transportation with the Ottawa International Airport Authority.
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Flights will be operated on Porter’s 132-seat Embraer E195-E2 aircraft.
This is Porter’s 20th non-stop route from Ottawa and the second to British Columbia.
“Ottawa continues to be a growing market for us … With Victoria as our latest addition, travellers now have more options to fly across the country with us,” said Andrew Pierce, vice-president network planning and reporting with Porter Airlines.
The expansion of the route continues Porter’s efforts to expand its network with YOW as a hub for travel, bringing more direct flights to the airport.
Earlier this month, Porter said that its route to Las Vegas and its route to Fort Lauderdale would soon be flying year-round.
Last year, Porter began offering direct routes from YOW to St. John’s, N.L., in June. The previous month, the carrier launched a non-stop route between Ottawa and Winnipeg.
Porter has been expanding its presence at the Ottawa airport in other ways, including the creation of a crew base at YOW for pilots and flight attendants who staff its new Embraer E195-E2 aircraft. The base serves about 150 crew members.
Porter also boosted capacity on eight routes from the nation’s capital to key destinations in Canada and the U.S. amid rising demand for air travel. Porter says it would operate 14 non-stop flights from Ottawa over the summer.
Porter’s future plans for YOW include building two new aircraft hangars totalling 150,000 square feet, a $65-million project that officially opened in May.
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.
