YVRYEGYVR

I flew porter just one time about 10years ago and it was a great experience. Felt like a private jet, literally 2 or 3 pax, nice lounge/gate area, convenient location.

I'm booking for Toronto - Ottawa return for a weekend in April.

AC Tango and Porter are the same price. For next to no AQM, no need for AQS, is Porter the better option? Is Porter as packed as AC now? I don't want to pay the flex/J fares.

Pearson is slightly more convenient to get to for me, and has proper lounges- but I don't plan to spend much time there anyway.

Is the return from YOW any different for AC vs Porter?

YZF_Elite

No meaningful difference, it's a 40 minute flight. If I was closer to YYZ I'd fly AC for the comfort of the bigger seats on the jet, particularly if it's during a season where YTZ may have weather delays (e.g. morning fog). Really though it's a flip of the coin IMO.

StuMcIlwain

AC is more reliable than Porter, but Porter provides better service. It's your call.

eigenvector

I would just decide based on which airport is more convenient. There's no meaningful difference between PD and AC on this route IMO.

seegs

I find Porter really falls over when there are any issues in the fleet, especially due to the fact that planes often go YTZ-YOW-YHZ or YTZ-YUL-YSJ. If there is an issue in YHZ it could mess up YOW/YUL-YTZ and onward as their fleet is fully utilized. If things are fine within the fleet, it's great service and you'll be super happy. Better snacks too compared to AC on the YTZ-YUL route.

One minor thing (and I'm shocked to be saying this), AC's IT is far superior. I can standby early with my phone, I can easily use the manage my booking etc. Porter's website is so god damn slow and they have no app to use! God forbid I have to interact with a human being to fly standby :P

ricktoronto

Downtown to downtown Via1 is a great option.

yul36

Train Stn in Ottawa is not downtown. Not as far as the airport though.

flybit

porter is far more reliable and way less hassles. (AC has the worst on time performance in NA)

PB53x11

Porter has free drinks, and security is typically much quicker than Pearson. The time you save getting to Pearson might be more than made up as a result. Plus the amount of time taxiing is a lot less at the island than at Pearson, so I suspect if you look at scheduled times the Porter flights will be shorter (but I haven't looked recently).

YOWCDNFF

Although the statement on AC's on time performance is factually accurate, out of YOW, it is Porter that is often proving to be less reliable. AC's YOW flights departing to YYZ are often on an aircraft coming from YYZ so would become an issue only of coming from YYZ. With Porter, the aircraft could come from YTZ, or Atlantic Canada - often on a multi-city run such as YYT-YHZ-YOW-YYZ.

Being at YOW a fait bit, my observations around flight delays or cancellations between YOW and YTO is that AC is most reliable, followed by Porter and Westjet actually being the worse

montrealer

I fly this route frequently.

When there are no IRROPS, then comfort in flight (in Y; only AC has J) and in the boarding lounge is better on PD, though as others have said, that's of dubious importance for a <1 hr flight.
If you're downtown, then the Island Airport (PD only to Ottawa, AC to YUL only) is more convenient, though if you're close to a Pearson Express station that difference is now close to par.
Island is a smaller airport, with shorter lineups, etc., but that's negated if you have status or Nexus and can move through YYZ lineups quickly.

The big difference is in IRROPS performance. Yes AC has on-time performance issues overall, but they don't seem egregiously bad (subjective experiences) YYZ-YOW. PD's problem is its turboprop fleet and the Island airport, which closes down in weather (winter snowstorms, summer thunderstorms) where YYZ keeps limping along. You don't want to be flying PD on a day when it cancels half of its flights, or has planes rerouted from YTZ to YYZ and is then proposing to bus you in/out of downtown. For me, on most trips the chance of a 15-20 min delay on AC is not a big deal (vs PD out of YTZ), but the consequences of "oops, we can't get you in/out of YTZ in the next 3-4 hours at least" are much worse.

@ricktoronto, yes the train is very pleasant and convenient, when the schedule works. Unfortunately, they don't have early or late enough trains to may a day trip in-out possible, so really only an option if you can and want to clear your calendar for a full morning or afternoon and work comfortably for 3-4 hours (there's free and pretty good wifi).

Personally, I choose by the above factors each time and am delightfully inconsistent. I slightly favour PD when I can, purely since 250 AQMs on AC will not really make a difference, and while I genuinely *like* Air Canada compared to some on this board, I think competition is important and it's good to support it.

Badenoch

Even the slightest increase in convenience would be enough for me to take Air Canada. If Pearson is more convenient there is no way I'd go downtown just to fly Porter.

Arcanum

For a mainline route with lots of VIPs like YYZ-YOW, that's probably true. AC would hate to disappoint or delay the politicians and their lackeys. If you're flying to/from a regional airport, however, the opposite is true. AC Express has abysmal on-time performance. Their fleet is heavily utilized, so any issue with the plane likely means a lengthy delay or cancellation rather than a swap. They also seem to have limited ability to make up time, I suspect due to a combination of inadequate schedule padding and low priority for regional flights at a busy hub like YYZ. The end result is that delays tend to build throughout the day. I've been in YQT waiting to board AC8530 (departure time 05:00) and seen AC8547 (scheduled arrival 00:59) just pulling into the gate.

I agree with you about service. Porter provides free alcoholic beverages and a nice range of free snacks. AC Express (at least on regional routes in Ontario) charges for both. They don't even give out those crappy little pretzel bags you get on mainline!

D404

I'm usually on those uber-delayed AC8547. Not great after a TATL.

That said, at least AC can offer such late flights - Porter cannot, because of YTZ noise restrictions. That is one think I heavily consider on some occasions.

meagicano

I prefer AC. The FA uniforms, steam whistle and terra chips aren't quite enough for me to want to deal with PD's inconsistency. I have colleagues who are staunch defenders of PD and even they admit they can't trust it as much as they trust AC for the YOW-Toronto run... "though once you figure out which flights are the ones most likely to be cancelled, it's great!"...

On days when I am really not feeling Pearson, or when the runway construction was happening, I would use my flight pass to fly YTZ-YUL-YOW or vice versa and found it would add maybe 20-30 minutes max (when things worked out) over going to Pearson. During rush hour I'd often save time adding in the YUL stop.

Plus, I am a sad, sad segment chaser... 24 so far...