Recent weeks have seen a flurry of announcements by Canadian regional carrier Porter Airlines as the company expands its fleet and operations.

November’s news that it was exercising 25 purchase rights for the Embraer E195 E2, a development that will take its fleet to 75 of the type, was followed by announcements that it is entering a wide-ranging partnership with Alaska Airlines, while expanding its route network and stepping up capacity on existing sectors.

The Alaska Airlines interline agreement, announced December 13, will link up Porter’s strong presence across Eastern Canada with Alaska’s U.S. West Coast network.

The following day, Porter said it was responding to strong demand in its Ottawa network by increasing capacity on eight routes connecting key Canada and U.S. destinations for spring and summer 2024.

Service to Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary will increase to twice-daily service operated on the Embraer E195-E2. Additionally, the popular Ottawa-Halifax route will see an increase in seat capacity when the route, currently operated with the 78-seat De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400, is upgraded to the 132-seat Embraer in April. Routes from Halifax to Montreal and St John’s will also move to the Embraer from March 31.

Porter started life using the Dash 8-400, but moved to the E195 E2 because “it was a matter of expanding beyond our current regional footprint,” president and CEO Michael Deluce said. The airline had been limited by the Dash 8-400’s capabilities, notably a maximum range of around 700 miles.

The acquisition of the Embraers allowed the airline to start stretching its legs with transcontinental services of up to five or six hours and 2,400 miles, as well as increasingly moving into cross-border U.S. services, notably to Florida to cater for ‘snowbirds’, Canadians seeking to escape from their country’s long, cold winters. Deluce says that Porter will be increasing flights to warm-weather destinations in areas including the Caribbean and Central America “over time.”

Strong operating economics were obviously a major factor in opting for the E195 E2, said Deluce – “The jet is exceeding our expectations, especially in terms of fuel use” – but a big deciding factor when the airline was considering both the Embraer and the competing Airbus A220-300 was the former’s 2-2 seating arrangement.

“We tested that extensively with customers and the concept of not having a middle seat on a jet was very favorable. Our customers love the aircraft; our NPI score is through the roof.”

Porter has already accepted 24 of its original order for 50 E195 E2s, which will be delivered by the end of 2024, with the new order for 25 following on from 2025 “at a very rapid pace.”

Porter has 25 purchase rights remaining and the CEO said he thinks it “highly likely” that these will be exercised in future.