Canada’s Porter Airlines is considering membership in the oneworld alliance.
Asked by The Airline Observer‘s Brian Sumers at the Skift Aviation Forum whether oneworld alliance membership is in the cards for them, Porter’s President Kevin Jackson said that the “honest answer” is “We don’t know.”
We are forming relationships with a lot of oneworld carriers now. Alaska and American are two of them.
He mentions Qatar Airways as one of their partners, and they already partner with British Airways too. Jackson notes that “oneworld doesn’t have a partner in Canada and Porter would make an obvious answer to that if we choose to join.”
However, Porter hasn’t figured out yet whether alliance membership versus partnership makes sense for them. Alliance membership is more expensive.
Porter is based at Toronto’s Billy Bishop airport near downtown, and hubs there as well as Toronto-Pearson and Ottawa. They fly 48 Embraer E195-E2 jets and 29 De Havilland Dash 8-400 turboprops.
They offer service throughout the eastern U.S. plus key leisure and American Airlines hubs in Florida. Cities include places like Boston, New York JFK and Newark, Washington Dulles, and Philadelphia as well as Chicago Midway and O’Hare, and sun routes.
It would be great as air canada has high co pays and westjet (skyteam partner) is absolute garbagge
I just redeemed 10k alaska miles for a non stop from ft lauderdale to toronto
Great deal and nice airlines
It’s a really weird time to strike a US-Canadian deal, but thinking long term, the real question is if they really want a deal with AA on NY-Toronto and what that deal looks like. It was, of course, notably and understandably excluded from the codeshare deal announced earlier this year. And I’m not sure it really makes sense absent a Delta/Westjet-style JV deal where AA (and maybe Alaska) take a piece of Porter. Whether AA could actually pull that off… eh, low likelihood, but you never know.
I don’t think Porter Airlines flies to Cincinnati (CVG) currently and I can’t recall them ever having done so
They don’t fly to ORD, DTW or CLE
I think you are technically correct in referring to Porter as having all-economy configurations. However, the E95 has 7 rows in front with extra legroom, and the Q400 has 2 such rows. Both planes have 2-2 seating, so no middle seats. Furthermore, Porter offers free beer and wine, which many North American carriers do not offer in economy class. I would describe flying Porter as Economy Plus.
Data source: Aerolopa.com
Cool! I really like Porter, especially their racoon mascot, Mr. Porter, who’s always up to ‘cool things’ in their promotional emails. It’s honestly worth subscribing just to see that guy in my inbox.
Porter joining OW, they would require a proper business class not just Porter “Reserve” which is really Premium Economy.
@Jacob
why? Even BA doesn’t have an American-style domestic business/first class. even if Oneworld required a proper business or first class on domestic flights (which it doesn’t), Porter could accomplish Club Europe with little more than a free bagel and cream cheese with a glass of wine.
BA doesn’t even block a seat on their Embraer Club Europe product out of LCY.
This would be interesting for all sorts of reasons. How would status carry over into OW? What would the lounge access look like? For example, would flying out of EWR grant BA lounge access with other-carrier status? How about with OWE via AA (since it wouldn’t be an Admirals Club or a domestic itinerary)? How would spend crediting interact? And so on.
Being an Alliance member is essential for business travelers who rely on international alliances to propagate their status to other airlines for priority boarding and lounge access. The fact they are the only carrier in an alliance is why Air Canada has such a lock on the corperate travel market. If Proter joined an alliance it could change the dynamics of the market dramatically.
Porter is an all economy airline flying regional jets that can’t even serve warm meals, no in-flight entertainment screens, no premium economy let alone business class. It’s a terrible fit and poor product . It’s fine for a short 3hr flight but any longer and it’s awful .
The closest the have to premium seating is Porter reserve but it’s just as narrow as economy, just extra few inches of legroom, no screens, no warm food and basically just economy plus
It will be awful if someone on a OW partner had to connect with porter with huge downgrade in service
Super interesting. Porter originally started out with just the Q400s and restored scheduled airline service to Toronto’s amazing Island Airport (now Billy Bishop). They had free lounge access for all passengers, (the entire YYZ became a lounge and they even created a mini-lounge at their gate in decrepit EWR Terminal B). Glassware on the planes. Travel magazine. Outstanding service. Basically a mini-Emirates with propellers.
Over time most of the perks went away and they recently added jets, making them a much more regular carrier. Joining an alliance would be the logical next step. And probably necessary because the entire airline was built on the idea of providing incredibly convenient service to the US, a market that Trump has single-handedly and for no actual reason temporarily demolished. With Canadian travel to the US down 30% but overseas travel to Canada up, Porter likely needs to figure out a way to tie into those international flights that pile up at Pearson. Oneworld makes a lot of sense to me.