Porter has confirmed that it has ordered 30 aircraft and 50 purchase rights, and there is likely to be a significant discount from the listed price. It can also choose to convert the purchase right to E190-E2.

The new aircraft will not operate at Billy Bishop Airport on Toronto’s waterfront, where Porter currently provides turboprop service.

The airline plans to continue flying with the existing 29 Q400 turboprop aircraft fleet at Toronto Island Airport, which has been grounded for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and plans to resume flights by September 8.

Porter will restart operations in phases, with the initial flights going between Canadian destinations. Flights to U.S. cities, including Boston, Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC will resume on September 17.

Complete list of destinations to be announced

“Obviously, the past 16 months have been a difficult period for the industry, but getting rid of the crisis is often the best opportunity to build growth in the future,” President and CEO Michael Deluce (Michael Deluce) said in an interview Said.

He said that the pandemic has laid the foundation for the airline’s substantial growth plan to be implemented in mid-2022 as it enters a recovery phase.

The complete list of destinations will be announced in due course, but Drews said that he sees an opportunity to serve the southern United States as well as the Caribbean and Mexico.

Robert Kokonis, an airline analyst and president of AirTrav Inc., an airline consulting company, called this a “bold move” that would definitely arouse a strong reaction from Canada’s two major airlines-especially in Porter. Ready to land at “Pearson’s Dragon’s Mouth” “This is the main operating base of Air Canada and the second largest base of WestJet.

“WestJet and Air Canada will not sit back and watch. They will respond very strongly in the market because everyone has suffered from the pandemic,” Kokonis said in an interview.

This is good news for passengers who have seen the addition of Swoop and Flair and the upcoming Enerjet expand their choices.

But Kokonis said he doesn’t believe Porter will try to become Sunwing, Transat or Air Canada Rouge by mainly attracting casual crowds. Instead, he expects that in addition to leisure travelers, it will continue to cater to the needs of business travelers who use Toronto Island Airport to quickly travel to the nation’s largest cities.

“I think they might just have a chance to fight”

Porter’s growth has been limited by the time available at the island’s airport. In 2015, when jets were banned, its efforts to increase jet services were cancelled.

The airline ordered the Bombardier C-series aircraft in 2013, which is now called the Airbus A220. It invalidated the order within the past year and switched to Embraer’s latest products after reviewing its expansion plans.

Kokonis said that the Embraer aircraft has 120 to 146 seats, which is an excellent choice for Porter. Porter has an extremely strong brand influence and customer base in eastern Canada.

“This is a very, very bold and decisive market action they are taking-and since this airline has grounded more than any other airline in Canada during the pandemic, I don’t want this to be more effective for suffering time. There are also more long-term groups and employees, executives and shareholders than this group,” he said.

“And I think they might just have a chance to make this work.”

Duluth said that Porter is ready for any reaction that might occur in the game.

“Porter has been competing in a fairly aggressive environment,” he said, referring to Air Canada, WestJet and American Airlines.

“Porter has the highest customer satisfaction and highly acclaimed products in Canada-we have completely changed the way people travel short distances. Now with the expansion of E2, we will be able to expand our route network in North America and other regions with us Compared to what we did in the short-haul market, we did the same thing in the long-haul flight.”