In late 2021 we learned the details of a new Canadian ultra low cost carrier, and the airline has now put tickets on sale for travel as of this spring.
Continue reading: Lynx Air, Canada’s New Ultra Low Cost Carrier
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Thanks for the post. I'll be interested to see how many of these survive! I am surprised to see you reference Porter as a low-cost airline in a few recent posts. My understanding of them is actually more that they are a business-focused airline, given their hub is Toronto Billy Bishop airport, don't charge for drinks, etc.
They promise “great customer service”!
That should differentiate them from the other startups that promise “terrible customer service”!
Karen said: “I got an amazing deal on [INSERT CANADIAN AIRLINE HERE] but they went out of business and I’m never doing that again.”
Choose from:
Canada 3000, Canjet, Nationair, Royal, Roots, Greyhound, Intair, Jetsgo, Odyssey, Air Club, Skyservice, Worldways, Quebecair, Zoom,……
+1. Porter is an independent airline (not a subsidiary, not in an alliance...) but it's definitely not a LCC, let alone ULCC. It isn't leisure-dominated and its pricing model clearly isn't from the LCC playbook.
Canada may only have 38M people, but (1) those people are mostly clustered in like 20-30 cities and (2) those 20-30 cities are mostly scattered really far apart from each other. And then much of the rest of the population not in those 20-30 cities (in other words, all 3 territories + the far northern parts of most of the provinces) is really dependent on air travel for *absolutely everything* since very few paved roads even exist north of the 55N parallel. So Canada seems like a country that really could support a lot of air travel, more so than a more geographically compact country with similar population.
That said though, I don't know that Canada can support a lot of air travel *competition* especially if it's made up of many low cost carriers.
Population of Singapore is so tiny but Singapore Airlines amongst the best in the world
Porter is definitely only a small regional airline possibly with aspirations.
Only flies from Toronto.
Don't forget Wardair - the best Canadian airline, ever. Wish it would come back.
Lest we forget Legendary Wardair and slightly less legendary Canadian Airlines (CP Air). Both attacked by predatory pricing of AC and the government dominated air transport board that gave the profitable routes to AC and the losers to the others.
We need a favorite airline to bussel our butts around. I think I heard, they've got a main player that worked for, West jet, ?!What a great airline!! Air Canada, is a failure. Can't see a rebound for them, for 20years. If not vanished. Terrible service anyways. Fire the works.
I remember those two fondly. I had great flights to Asia on Canadian.
For me, Air Canada is a last resort. Avoid at all costs.
Porter flies from other airports, Toronto Billy Bishops is it's main hub but it also has smaller hubs in Halifax, Ottawa, and Montreal.
They will be bought out by Air Canada pretty quickly. Can't have an airline taking business away. If anyone doubts it, remember Canada 3000 ? Or CanJet ? JetsGo ? All low fare airlines that Air Canada killed so they could keep fares higher.
Good luck to them.
Anything that takes market share and/or profits away from the national disgrace that is Air Canada is good.
If you know anything about airlines Air Canada is anything but a disgrace, in fact it is considered amongst the best as is Westjet.
Each have won many global awards.
Anything that helps Air Canada go out of business is warmly welcomed. Canadian aviation needs to be shaken up big time.
It would certainly differentiate them from other airlines, which have almost universally terrible customer service.
Add in CP Air, Wardair, PWA - all major long term competition murdered by illegal government sponsored anti-trust predatory pricing by a government airline with massive losses.
Or from the well established airline with a maple leaf on its tail where terrible customer service just comes naturally.
Interesting how the article omits Swoop which has tried to bankrupt Flair for a number of years now. (and probably coming close) It is of course a subsidiary of Westjet. It is also interesting that these three newish start ups are in Western Canada where there are less passengers to service. I guess we'll see how it plays out.
Phil
A la cart means when you add up all the ancillary fees, it will be cheaper, less of a hassle and more comfortable to fly a major carrier.
With Tim Morgan, the founder of Westjet in there, and I believe 3 to 4 of the other original founders ( whom were all forced out years ago because Westjet CEO " Clive " and others were getting greedy and moving away from the low cost agenda that was their success ) They will bring on a big run to the competition... People thought Westjet would never make it. Look out for this one!!!
Of course, what helps drive up airfares in Canada are high taxes. So, that $39 fare is more like $90... and that's BEFORE adding the ancillaries.