We planned for and were so excited about our upcoming Porter Airlines experience in July of 2022, a “real” trip, post Covid. We wanted no worries about getting to and finding usuriously costly parking in the the big smoke (Toronto), no worries about getting a hotel there unless it was desired, an easy, short and no-charge commute from Toronto’s Union Station to Billy Bishop Airport on Toronto’s waterfront (10 minute shuttle ride), and then a smaller, slower, less frenzied air trip from Toronto to St. John’s and back.
That was the plan. While the trip down was as we had hoped, Porter sure dropped the ball on the way back. More on that later in the article.
We had booked a train from home to Toronto’s Union Station for the day our flight left Billy Bishop airport. There was some last minute stress when we learned the night before that our train service may not happen due to an incipient walkout. That walkout didn’t occur and our train trip to Union Station Toronto was uncomplicated and worked out just as we hoped.
If you haven’t ever travelled via rail to Union Station Toronto, when you do, consider leaving some time to wander and view the beautiful Union Station Great Hall. Well worth a look-see in our opinion.
After a brief look around this hundred year old train terminal, it was an easy walk from the VIA train arrival platform, through the Union Station Great Hall, out via the Front Street exit. Then a short stroll west on Front to the corner, north across Front onto York Street and then only a few more steps to the already-waiting Porter Shuttle bus. Overall not much more than a 100 yard walk, an easy distance even while dragging suitcases and carry-ons.
In planning our trip we included about 3 hours at the Toronto Island airport before our flight so there wasn’t any need to rush out of the Union Station and hurry to find the shuttle. As well, the Porter airport shuttle runs every 15 minutes so if we missed one there’d be another along shortly.
Downtown Toronto is bustling, with cars, trucks and people zipping hither and yon. Not having lived in a big city for decades we wandered and gawked a little like tourists from the countryside, which is what we are anymore. Be aware of that traffic when crossing Front Street.
After a short, and mostly empty shuttle bus ride from Union Station to the mainland side of Billy Bishop airport, we were out of the bus and following the signs towards the tunnel to the terminal.
One can take a ferry to the airport if preferred (you can see from the photo above how short the ferry ride would be) or follow the signs and take the tunnel over. We opted to walk via the tunnel as we knew we’d be sitting for a long time on the flights, and wanted to get at least a bit of exercise before hours in the plane.
It’s not a long walk to the airport from the mainland with a “moving sidewalk” helping luggage-toting pedestrians much of the way. If there is lots of time there’s no need to hurry and we could make the walk part of our trip experience.
After seeing all of the images about the terrible crowding that was ongoing at Pearson International Airport, we headed for the departures area at Billy Bishop somewhat trepidatiously. This is what we saw upon arrival there…
As you might guess from the photo above, we were more than pleased about how busy the check in area for Porter Airlines wasn’t. Oh, and those folks appearing on the right of the photo above, they’re just about to enter the security area… but wait, it was only them! There was NO LINE.
We already had our tickets, walked right into security, did our checks there, and were through in minutes.
This was exactly what we hoped for when we decided to take Porter Airlines this trip. The “crowds” likely never appeared given that the Porter aircraft have only 78 seats each, and even if a number of aircraft are leaving in the same time frame, that small number of passengers per-plane equals fast check in and security screening.
Actually, Porter airlines was quite busy when we were there. While in the waiting room we saw a couple of more flights get called, folks boarded, planes took off, and still almost no line ups.
We now had about 2 hours or so before our flight, and we weren’t looking forward to a sterile, noisy, uncomfortable passenger “lounge” that most airports have. Billy Bishop / Porter passenger area pleased us, enormously.
Sure, the couple of restaurants and bars were busy and expensive. No, you can’t bring food or drink in with you through security, you have to acquire it once into the lounge. That’s the same as it is at all airports though, isn’t it? They have a deliberate monopoly on food and drink and charge accordingly.
Most of the the lounge chairs were soft and some folks were also able to sit inside some “one-person privacy booths” in the lounge, perhaps to work on their computers or just have a nap, and we did see a couple of passengers catching a snooze on one of the couches.
There were only a few of the one-person privacy booths and all were busy. We had brought our e-readers with us, there’s free wifi in the terminal, and our wait for our plane to be called while sitting on the comfortably soft lounge seats flew by.
On the Porter Aircraft
Boarding took only a couple of minutes once our flight was called.
Departure was on time, and with a short run down the runway the Porter Dash 8 aircraft was up and into the air. They don’t fly as high as jets, around 25,000 feet at most I believe, and they sure don’t fly as fast as jets, but we were looking for and got, a relaxed trip on the way to St. John’s via Halifax.
On board those of us approaching 2 meters (6+ feet) in height will find it a bit awkward to get into the window seat due to the overhead storage being quite low, but once seated, there is lots of head room, ample legroom (as compared to most “cattle class” jet seats) and the seats are wide enough for most.
One of the things about being on-board a Porter flight that I do enjoy is the complementary beverages including juice, soft drinks, beer and wine, the latter being limited in variety, but apparently not in quantity.
Both of the two types of beers they had on board on our trip were made by Lug-Tread which just happens to be one of my faves. The beer temperature was only a bit below room temperature, more European temperature than typical North American frosty temperature beer, but still quite good. They serve all drinks in real glass!
Snacks included the Walkers shortbread shown in the photo below, and sometimes almonds, sometimes chips and and there was one other option, but cannot recall what it is as I didn’t partake of it. It’s typically one snack per person per flight.
One of the things about Porter I don’t like – aside from the horror story of our return flight – is that their flights have no “food”, just snacks. Our flight departed just after 4:00 p.m. Toronto time. Given the overall 6 hour flight to NL, it meant we would miss our traditional dinner time by a long margin. A snack for supper just wasn’t going to do it. You cannot buy a meal while on board and while enroute you cannot get off the aircraft (normally) to find supper in an air terminal! We purchased sandwiches at the terminal, a ham & cheese and an egg salad, at $12.00 each, to bring with us on board, but not much of a dinner I thought.
One stop flight to St. John’s on Porter
We had one stop on the way to St John’s in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They announced when we landed in Halifax that ongoing passengers were to stay on board and that the stop would be approximately 30 minutes. Maybe they should start saying that the station stops are normally 30 minutes to an hour in length, with an hour, or even longer, being closer to accurate on all our flights with Porter.
Nevertheless, after the stop we were on our way to St. John’s from Halifax, arrived there almost on time, and while we were in St. John’s we enjoyed an immensely satisfying week, and that story is written about on this site. Here is the link: “We travel to St. John’s NL” page.
And then, there was the return Porter flight. Yikes!
The following includes a few excerpts of the letter we wrote to Porter based on their miserable performance on our return trip from NL.
Due to our timetable requirements, the return trip from NL to Toronto included a stop in Halifax and a stop in Ottawa. We knew this before we booked, the timing for the 3-stage return trip worked for us… at least we thought so. Read on:
On the way home “Our plane was delayed some time at the gate in St. John’s with a full complement of travelers due to a “paperwork” issue.” Quite some time after planned departure… “We finally taxied to the runway and then sat there, engines running and ready to enter the active runway for take off for at least 30 minutes waiting for what we were told was more “paperwork” to be delivered to the plane, even though we had waited for said “paperwork” at the terminal… finally the aircraft was taxied back to the terminal gate, once again because of “paperwork issues”. Equally annoying is that we kept being told over and over again that it was only going to be another 10 or so minutes before departure. Eventually our flight was about an hour and a half late leaving St. John’s.”
The plane had to be refuelled before departure as it had burned so much fuel sitting beside the runway with both engines running.
“Upon arrival at Ottawa, already past our expected arrival time to be in Toronto, those of us who are continuing to Toronto were told to stay on the plane.”
But then…
“we were then told to get off the plane, with all our possessions, but not told why or what to do once we disembarked…” After 10-15 minutes… “a Porter rep showed up, and asked us if everyone was there… and we were herded from the one gate to another… we would be boarding another plane already at that gate… about 30 minutes to make the transfer.”
How were we to know if “everyone was there?” And the comment that it would take thirty minutes to make the transfer… where had I heard that before? And on this farce went:
“A while later, we are told by another Porter rep that our flight had been cancelled and that we would be staying in a local hotel
overnight courtesy of Porter.” Folks, when it’s not by choice it’s no courtesy! We would then have to book a new flight for tomorrow “before we left the airport that evening.”
It’s now getting on to 11:00 pm Ottawa time (9:30 NL time), we’ve not had supper, and despite asking repeatedly if they could tell us if the hotel they were sending us to had a restaurant – it didn’t – no one could or would provide that information.
To catch our train in Toronto the next day we had to book a 6:00 am flight out of Ottawa, this before any breakfast could be obtained anywhere. At that time of the day any airport-local restaurant is not open either.
The next morning we then had to line up for security in Ottawa, a much bigger airport with more flights going at the same time than at St. John’s, with many more people and the resulting long, long lineup to get to security. We’d already gone through security in St. John’s the afternoon before and had our flight not been cancelled, would not have been subject to this again, particularly with no breakfast or coffee before we had to get in line shortly after 6:00 a.m. Ottawa time.
Fortunately there was a coffee bar open at the Ottawa airport which we could get to after security screening, and coffee could be acquired along with a muffin or what I call the “petroleum-in-a-bar” chocolate type energy bars. We had a coffee and muffin each.
Porter did respond to our complaint:
In part, Porter’s response was ” Our records show that you were delayed on arrival a total of 768 minutes with the breakdown below:
Controllable: 0 minutes
Controllable for safety: 87 minutes
Uncontrollable: 681 minutes
As your total controllable minutes were not the greatest of the three categories, you are not eligible for any monetary compensation as per APPR.
We hope to welcome you aboard again soon under better circumstances.”
If you break it down into minutes it sounds better than hours, doesn’t it? In hours it was more than a 10 hour delay getting from St. John’s to Toronto, all due to Porter.
Further, it’s Porter that determines into which category the “minutes” of one’s delay are applied, ergo, they can massage them as they see fit to avoid any liability.
They hope to“welcome us aboard again soon”. No, there is no chance of welcoming us on board a Porter flight again! Once is enough, thanks.
Whether or not you choose to use Porter might be based on the level of risk you’ll accept as to whether or not you’ll get to or back to your destination on time with Porter Airlines. If you do choose to travel with them, we hope you have better luck than we.
Cheers.