17 reviews
Hi everyone and welcome to another Flight Report.
This will be report number 5 of 8 of my Canadian trip and will cover my 3rd flight with Porter to Edmonton. I actually have no reason to go to Edmonton but since I had a few days free (and I really, really wanted to try out Porter's new Embraer E195-E2 jets), I decided to take a short detour across the country to Alberta.
This will be my first time flying the new Embraer E2 jets so I'm really looking foward to seeing what it's like, especially on an airline like Porter. As for Price, I paid around CA$150 (~€100/US$110) including seat reservation. This was much more than LCCs like Flair or Lynx (around double the price), so is it worth paying extra? Lets find out! :)
From 2023, I aim to offset all of my CO2 emission from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard. The CO2 output for this flight is:
YYZ-YEG: 216kg
Total for 2023 (so far): 1164kg
Toronto Pearson has 2 terminals: Terminal 1 and Terminal 3. Porter uses T3, which is linked to T1 by a free shuttle train.
View outside from the station.
The check-in area.
More check-in desks.
Departures for the morning. Our flight (PD403) is the 4th down on the right, conveniently above another WestJet flight to Edmonton departing at the same time.
Amazing views of the apron from the check-in desks.
Security didn't take too long (20 minutes) and we are through airside.
Time to have a quick explore of the airport. T3 is divided into 2 piers, here's one of them:
The C gates at the end of the pier.
Sadly these gates aren't great for planespotting. Here's an Air Transat A321neo (C-GOIS) heading to Rio Hato (RIH)
But luckily the B gates in the middle of the pier is much better.
View of the apron with a Swoop Boeing 737 MAX 8 (C-GYLP) pushing back for Puerto Vallarta (PVR).
Picture of the duty-free store that I forgot to take earlier
Walking to the 2nd of the 2 piers.
If you've read my other FRs in this series you'd have known that most of the airports on this trip have been horrible for planespotting so it's really nice to be in an airport where I can take some nice photos for once.
Here's a WestJet Boeing 737-800 (C-FKRF) heading to George Town (GCM)
Another photo of the Apron. You can see the tail of a GlobalX Airbus A321 (N277GX) heading to Miami (MIA).
View of the gates on the other pier. This pier is divided into two: one half for domestic/international flights and the other for US flights. The US flights are separated by the glass wall on the left.
The seating here.
Our flight will depart from gate B6. B1-B26 is in a separate building and getting there will involve walking under the apron.
It takes under 5 minutes to walk to the other building.
Nice view of the Dash 8s and also of the taxiway leading to runway 23.
Finally! A nice photo of our plane (for once)!
And here's a better photo of her I managed to get during my planespotting session in Montreal at the end of my trip.
Some information about our plane:
Type: Embraer E195-E2
Registration: C-GKQK
Age: ~ 3 months
As to be expected, this plane is brand new delivered to Porter in late December 2022.
Flight time today will be 4 hours and here is our route:
The seats on this new Embraer.
The legroom - fairly average.
Tray table and seat-back pockets.
First view out of the wing.
Each seat have a pair of universal power outlets.
And is reclinable.
Interestingly enough one of the main issues (at least for me) of the E-jets can be spotted from the outside. If you look at the photos of the plane and compare it to the Boeing 737 or A320, you'll notice that the windows are spaced further apart from each other on the E-jet. This means that a lot of the seats have a misaligned window, as is the case for me (and for the few rows in front and behind me). It's not a huge problem for most people but for someone who loves to take photos out of plane windows, it's kinda annoying to have to stretch out for each shot.
Anyway, here's a WestJet flight (also to Edmonton) pushing back. Looks like they'll get there before us.
Pushing back around 10 minutes late.
View of the gates as we taxi towards runway 23.
An Airbus A320 of Canada Jetlines, a brand new LCC that commenced operations in September 2022.
A short while later, we are off to Alberta!
Views of Brampton right after takeoff.
Beautiful weather today in Ontario.
Reaching our cruising altitude.
Let's have a look at the Wi-Fi, which is free but you will have to watch a small ad every 30 minutes. Wi-Fi speed is decent, so is enough for checking emails or browsing the web.
Porter apparently do also offer free movies and TV shows onboard, but it wasn't working on my phone for some reason.
Pretty soon after takeoff the crew started going around with drinks. Complimentary beer and wine is also available for all passengers however I just went for orange juice.
Above Lake Huron.
And Lake Superior later on.
On longer flights, Porter also offer the option to buy additional food onboard. However, it was offered for free on this fight (presumably as a way to introduce the service to passengers). There was 3 options: fish, chicken or a cheese plate. I picked the cheese. It was super nice and felt really high quality. I'm not sure how much it would've costed usually so can't comment on its value for money unfortunately.
Over Saskatchewan.
Quick visit to the toilet - which was nice and clean.
About 90 minutes before landing, the crew came around with another snack and drink. This time I picked apple juice along with banana bread. Honestly the catering on this flight has been amazing - probably one of the best in North America.
While the Embraer E2 jets are a very new addition to Porter's fleet, the airline's already received 9 of them and are looking into further expansion around North American.
Starting our descent into Edmonton.
Unlike in Ontario, the weather in Alberta looks miserable today.
First views of land on final.
Welcome to Edmonton! We landed 20 minutes late.
Parked at the gate.
As usual for domestic passengers, you are deposited straight from the jetbridge into the departures area.
I'll explore more of the airport on my return leg back, but it is super modern and nice.
Baggage reclaim - it's basically right next to the entrance/taxi rank.
That concludes this FR, the next FR in this series will cover the return portion back on an airline with a polar opposite business model compared to Porter. Thanks for reading and see you there!
An amazing flight with Porter. This flight is probably the highlight of my entire trip. Catering is top notch for a domestic economy flight. The complimentary meal is obviously an amazing surprise but even without it Porter's service beats most Canadian airlines on the same route. Cabin crew were amazing and the seats were really nice as well. Just a shame that the IFE wasn't working on my phone. It's not often that I go into a flight having super high expectations, and it's even rarer that the airline in question completely smashes them out of the water. I would definitely go out of my way to pick Porter in the future (even if they are more expensive) as you really do get a much better experience with them.
Toronto Pearson (YYZ) - nice and fairly efficient airport. Parts of the airport (like the check-in area) can get fairly crowded in the morning but isn't too much of a problem. Also fairly good public transport options to the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Edmonton International Airport (YEG) - really modern and efficient airport, just a shame that the bus service connecting the airport runs only hourly to the outskirts of the city, which makes using public transit super inefficient.
2 Comments
Congrats on being the first to post a review on the new Ported E2! Looks fantastic! Except maybe the misaligned window, but eh, that's common with E-jet, as you mention.
Wow how nice of the crew to do give out meals for free. I guess it was, as you mention, a way of getting the word out there about the options for purchase. Porter haven't been great at marketing the new Buy-on-board food on their website or elsewhere, so I guess this in an interesting way of doing that. They have talked a lot about the free food in the new Premium Economy cabin, but have been oddly mum about the BOB service (which is essentially what's given for free in Premium, minus the sides).
All in all a very good flight with Porter on the new Ejet!
Thanks again for reading!
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